Canada’s oil and gas looks east

There is a clear push to bolster exports to Asia amid uncertainty around its North American neighbour, but there are limits to the benefits from the energy crisis

In response to trade tariffs against Canadian goods and threats to the country’s sovereignty by the second Trump administration, the federal government, led by Prime Minister Mark Carney, in late 2025 set a goal of doubling Canada’s annual exports to non-US markets to C$600b within a decade to decrease economic dependence on its suddenly unreliable neighbour to the south. Asian countries are key target markets for the Canadian government, and the leading good being sold is energy, especially oil and gas given Canada’s already large production—the world’s fourth- and fifth-largest, respectively—and massive resource base to support substantially greater production of each in the future. To sup