Quote:
Originally Posted by whitev70r
Question about Russian oil. I know that it's a self-serving thing of the Western world not to impose sanctions on Russian oil. On this topic alone, I'd be willing to pay more for gas if it in anyway may contribute to the end of the invasion of Ukraine. Such small sacrifice compared to what the Ukrainian people are facing.
The question is this ... is Canada not self-sufficient when it comes to oil? We have Alberta oil fields. And is the US not self-sufficient with all their Texas refinery and all? You mean there is that much oil underneath Russia to be able to sustain their own country's needs and export so much to the Western world? Find this hard to believe.
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The sanctions do include oil, or rather, do not specifically exclude oil. Shell and BP are looking at ways of exiting Russia, and Canada pledged to not buy Russian crude, although this is largely symbolic as we hadn't bought from them in may years anyway.
What you need to know is oil is not gas. Oil is refined to gasoline, among other things, but while the price of oil does have an effect on the price of gasoline, having a large reserve of oil doesn't always mean cheap gas prices.
Your next question is then well why can't we refine our own oil? And the easiest answer to that is capitalism. Canada has refineries, but often times it's cheaper to either buy crude or straight up gas from other nations than it is to tap/refine your own. Sometimes it's cheaper to buy refined gasoline than refining your own. There are logistics, commodity prices, demand, and a slew of a lot of things, each of which is its own separate topic of debate (pipelines, wages/profits, price gouging/fixing, etc., etc.).
Hopefully that answers you.