Canada looks to Beijing for new oil sands investment
As IOCs flee, Ottawa hopes to lure Asian petrodollars back
International oil companies are retreating from Canada's oil sands. In the past year alone, Shell, Statoil, Total and ConocoPhillips have sold off tens of billions of dollars in major projects to Canadian operators. Just four domestic companies now control more than 70% of the country's oil sands output. That might sound like good news to the oil nationalists, but it raises the threat that the oil sands won't get the investment needed to continue to grow. In response, natural resources minister Jim Carr took a trip through China last week to promote investment in the oil sands, among other projects, to the country's major energy companies. "We would welcome investment from any nation that's
Also in this section
19 February 2026
US LNG exporter Cheniere Energy has grown its business rapidly since exporting its first cargo a decade ago. But Chief Commercial Officer Anatol Feygin tells Petroleum Economist that, as in the past, the company’s future expansion plans are anchored by high levels of contracted offtake, supporting predictable returns on investment
19 February 2026
Growth in LNG supply will surpass the rise in demand in 2026 for the first time in years, according to Mike Fulwood, senior research fellow at the OIES, but lower prices are likely to encourage fuel switching and could create more demand on a permanent basis
19 February 2026
Awais Ali Butt, manager for sales and business development at Pakistan LNG Ltd, discusses LNG’s role in energy security across developing, price-sensitive economies, as well as examining trade-offs between buying strategies and the impact of lower prices and policy on import behaviour
19 February 2026
LNG’s technical maturity, availability and price, as well as regulation, have driven its rapid adoption as a marine fuel, yet its future in shipping will depend on transition policies and progress in cutting methane emissions and scaling bio- and synthetic LNG, according to Carlos Guerrero at Bureau Veritas
