why does Canada export so much oil to the US but also still import some oil from us?

Question

Wouldn’t it make most economic sense to just sell to our own countries in that case if there’s some standardized barrel price?

In: 293

Answer 1

Oil isn’t easy to move and doing so requires expensive, specialized equipment.

Canada’s oil transport infrastructure is largely set up to move oil from Alberta to the US Midwest and Texas. It isn’t possible to move oil west from Alberta due to the Rocky Mountains. It isn’t practical to move oil east from Alberta due to the distance, poor weather, and low demand.

So what Canada does is to export oil from Alberta to the US. British Columbia imports oil from California and Alaska – which is easy to do via either pipeline or sea. Eastern Canada imports oil from Pennsylvania, which is easy to do via pipeline or the Great Lakes.

The result is a large amount of oil flowing from Canada to the Midwest, and a small amount of oil flowing form the US west and east coasts to the Canadian west and east coasts.