US gains leverage over Canadian oil, weakens China amid US plans to overhaul Venezuelan oil market

By Fox News · Fox News

The Trump administration's plans to revitalize the Venezuelan oil market puts the United States at an advantage over Canada and serves to weaken China, according to energy experts. Conservative politicians, including the leader of Canada's conservative opposition party, are calling on Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney to approve a new Pacific coast pipeline to help aid the country's oil exports to overseas markets, amid fears that the United States' involvement in Venezuela's market will significantly impact the competitiveness of Canadian oil. Canadian lawmakers are concerned that increased oil exports from Venezuela to the United States, which is Canada's largest oil purchaser, will displace oil from Canada, forcing the country to drop its prices in order to stay competitive. Meanwhile, experts have added that the U.S. involvement in Venezuela's oil market will also serve to weaken China. "This is going to be bad for all petrostates, and Canada is basically a petrostate," Energy and Environment Legal Institute's Steve Milloy, a former fossil fuel industry lobbyist, told Fox News Digital. TRUMP TELLS SCARBOROUGH US WILL KEEP VENEZUELA OIL WHEN PRESSED ON IRAQ COMPARISONS A "petrostate" is a term used to describe a nation whose government and economy heavily rely on revenue from oil and natural gas exports. "Canada, like all petrostates — Iran, all of OPEC, all those people — are going to be at our mercy," Milloy added. The leader of Canada's conservative opposition party, Pierre Poilievre, said in a letter to Carney Tuesday, that the country needs to "move millions of barrels a day to overseas markets" in order to reduce Canada's "dependence" on the United States' oil market. "Venezuela's re-entry to American markets means time is running out," Poilievre told Carney in his letter, arguing "our sovereignty depends" on buffering the Canadian oil markets from the United States' influence amid its plans to go into Venezuela and overhaul its oil. "Recent events surro…