Nelson Bennett

Canadian journalist covering energy, resources and economics.

[Nelson Bennett @nbennett_ca]

I'm surprised the @BCUtilitiesCom didn't go all the way and insist on environmental activist nomenclature being used - "fracked gas". In any case, on any reporting I do that includes references to BCUC, I will be using "natural gas."

[First Nations Natural Gas Alliance @FNNGAlliance]

BC's @BCUtilitiesCom insists that 'natural gas' now must be called 'fossil gas.' News release: https://t.co/KQVQpdNqMG
• #ResourceWorks: 'It’s a semantic and framing decision at the expense of historical, chemical and operational accuracy.' https://t.co/cXWUWLfW52

[Blair King @BlairKing_ca]

Don’t want to be a pedant, but “fossil” gas is not derived from “fossils”. Fossils represent a different type of preserved pre-historical structures. Saying natural gas is derived from fossils is like saying man descended from apes. It is both dumb and wrong @BCUtilitiesCom

[Aaron Pete @Aaronpete_]

I'm prepared to go to jail over this.

My grandmother Rita Pete went to St. Mary's Indian Residential School. She experienced terrible abuse. As a consequence, she struggled with alcohol use most of her life.

My mother was born with FASD as a consequence of her using alcohol to cope with her trauma.

I am Chief of my community Chawathil First Nation. I am working to address the longstanding impacts of these past policies through renovating homes, building new homes, creating childcare, and growing businesses through economic development.

I have interviewed people who went to Indian Residential Schools. I have interviewed people who believe Indian Residential Schools were awful, horrible schools, meant to remove the Indian from the child.

I've also interviewed people who believe they were well intended, generous investments by Canadian taxpayers meant to assimilate a society and had shortcomings.

Like with many things, the history is dark, complicated, and with any policy that existed for a long time, across a whole country - there were different experiences.

No one story tells us everything. No report shares the full experience of the individuals who went. No commentator today can disprove someone's lived experience with statistics.

The path forward is not to criminalize speech, questions, or debate.

The path forward is empathy for past attendees.
The path forward is truth based on facts.
The path forward is real conversations.
The path forward is to lean into complexity.

If the government criminalizes this, then I will be a criminal for having these conversations.

If I am a criminal by the laws definition, then I am committed to going to jail over this.

[Resource Works @Resource_Works]

Germany is so desperate for secure energy it's willing to pay a premium for Canadian LNG shipped halfway around the world.

"The risk premium is real." - @ExnerPirot

@nbennett_ca on why the Ksi Lisims LNG offtake agreement with Germany's SEFE is a big deal: https://t.co/RanqkSmQVW

#BCPoli #CdnPoli #LNG #OOTT #EnergyPolicy

[Heather Exner-Pirot @ExnerPirot]

👀The security premium is real.

Canada will announce a deal tomorrow to supply Germany with LNG shipped from the Ksi Lisims project in northwest BC.
The buyer is Germany’s SEFE, the former Gazprom PJSC unit nationalized by the German government after the invasion of Ukraine.

[Nelson Bennett @nbennett_ca]

If Danielle Smith succeeds in getting a new pipeline built through B.C., I suggest it be named the David Eby pipeline. https://t.co/Go4KgO9lh6

[Resource Works @Resource_Works]

"We don't want to hear what people are against—we want to hear what they're for."
@MarkJCarney said that to 700 business leaders at @BoardofTrade in Vancouver yesterday just before a one-on-one with Premier @Dave_Eby.

@nbennett_ca on what Team Canada actually requires of BC right now: https://t.co/s3K9WihKbN

#BCPoli #CdnPoli #NaturalResources

[Nelson Bennett @nbennett_ca]

New industrial carbon price set, pipeline to follow? BC will feel pressure to lower industrial carbon tax targets to match Alberta schedule. https://t.co/ajJnlmRMj4

[Aaron Pete @Aaronpete_]

Here’s my concern.

Leaders need to demonstrate that they are grappling with trade-offs.

It’s part of politics to take positions, and it’s part of having principles to not cave when the pressure is real.

I don’t think one more pipeline is the cure to all of our problems (although it would help), and I don’t think stopping one pipeline negates the fact we are a natural resource based economy.

If you’re going to say no, say no fully. Say no to our economy growing. Say no to more social programs. Say no to greater investments in infrastructure.

That’s what logically follows from your no statement.

[Nelson Bennett @nbennett_ca]

Today's news conference with ⁦@Dave_Eby⁩, Natural Resources Minister ⁦@timhodgsonmt⁩ and LNG Canada CEO Chris Copper was thin on news. I suspect Hodgson was just putting in an appearance to reassure Eby that, with all the attention on Alta., he hasn't forgotten BC.

[Nelson Bennett @nbennett_ca]

@RobShaw_BC @VaughnPalmer Second that. Vaughn Palmer is the éminence grise of B.C. political journalism.

[Michael Geist @mgeist]

Signal is now warning that it could exit Canada over Bill C-22. The government has called Signal, Apple, Meta, US Congress, and cybersecurity experts all wrong. But this isn't a bluff. Canadians will lose access to secure services if the bill passes as is.
https://t.co/1inuO9Zfft

[Heather Exner-Pirot @ExnerPirot]

Facts:
1. TMX is a government asset whose costs are covered by tolls from O&G producers. It is profitable.
2. Oilsands are not the most expensive barrel anymore, because it’s not 2015. They are generally among the lowest break-even barrels in North America.
3. Oilsands are not the most carbon intensive barrels. They are only 1-3% higher emitting than the average US refinery barrel, and are lower emitting than heavy oil competitors Iraq, California and Venezuela.
Sources in thread /1

[Build Canada @build_canada]

We have long been advocates for a Canadian sovereign wealth fund. The Canada Strong Fund announced today by @MarkJCarney is not your traditional SWF.

They are typically funded through surpluses, not debt, and focused on diversifying away from the revenue stream that funds them.

This is more like a war bond – but instead of investing in debt, Canadian’s can buy equity in the projects that the government is working to get off the ground.

Our memo for a sovereign wealth (published Apr 2025) offers a different vision. Here's what it could look like.
https://t.co/0coMyUuWgt

We are watching developments closely – we will share details as we have them.

[Tim Hodgson @timhodgsonmt]

Today, we approved the Sunrise project, which will provide energy to homes, schools, and hospitals in B.C. and help us export more to Asia.

Indigenous ownership. Affordable bills. Trade diversification. Energy sovereignty.

That’s how we become an energy superpower.

[Resource Works @Resource_Works]

BC's forestry crisis has three causes.

Tariffs. Provincial policy. And a structural collapse in American home building that no government can fix.

"We can no longer be a dimensional lumber sector that produces commodity lumber for Americans." — BC Forests Minister @rparmar_BC

@nbennett_ca breaks down why the boom years for BC lumber may be gone for good.
https://t.co/AULvym7quV

[Trevor Tombe @trevortombe]

Our governments’ finances face a growth problem, not just a budget problem.

My latest for @TheHubCanada on why productivity changes everything: https://t.co/Ut7ahcVNNi #cdnecon #cdnpoli

[Eric Nuttall @ericnuttall]

OilX: current OPEC production down ~10.6MM Bbl/d vs. February...bigger drop than peak COVID!!! I lack the necessary eloquence to properly express just how bad this is for the world.

[Jordan Bateman @jordanbateman]

In the way only an economist can, @trevortombe absolutely crushes the BC NDP for their utter, reckless fiscal ineptitude:

"But most concerning of all is British Columbia, with a deficit of more than $13 billion for the coming year..."

(1/4)

https://t.co/dQ9eOxOuck

[Eric Nuttall @ericnuttall]

An incomplete list of what "the day after" will look like and why the US/Iran "excursion" will have a lasting impact on the oil market:
🛢️the process of Strait of Hormuz normalization will be measured in months even when "peace" comes, whatever that may look like. Voyage time to get empty vessels into the Strait and then back to destination points = months. Until then, production losses (now ~11MM Bbl/d) mount, yet safety buffers like unsanctioned oil-on-water and SPR will soon be very inadequate. Physical shortages imminent.
🛢️forecasted Middle Eastern production cumulative losses ~900MM Bbls even with things normalizing in April = death of the Super Glut narrative = baseline reset for balances. Inevitable demand destruction cannot offset 11MM Bbl/d of production losses.
🛢️production coming back online will take months (Kuwait saying 3-4 months, what of Iraq?) + potential for (semi) permanent losses due to reservoir damage
🛢️expected enduring political risk premium of $10/bbl-$20/bbl with new floor price of $70-$80
🛢️what is the value of OPEC spare capacity (all 1.5MM Bbl/of it pre-war) if much of it is vulnerable to a $30,000 drone = increasing strategic value of long-dated reserves in politically stable countries with egress (🇨🇦)
🛢️we already have strategic hoarding and product export bans, expect more countries to build SPRs = future demand
🛢️still TBD damage of many refineries and infrastructure = abnormally high refining margins, plus need to replenish what was already low stock levels