India wants to import more Canadian oil, LNG to fuel its growing economy, minister says

India is looking to import more Canadian oil and liquefied natural gas to fuel its growing economy, offering the opportunity for the domestic industry to diversify into a massive and growing market, Natural Resources Minister Tim Hodgson says.

Mr. Hodgson, who has just returned from meetings at India Energy Week in Goa, said increased energy shipments would play a big part in an economic partnership agreement with India that could double two-way trade to $70-billion annually by 2030.

The deal would also include trade in critical minerals, agricultural products, clean technology and advanced manufacturing.

India already buys some Canadian crude exported through the U.S. Gulf Coast and, in small volumes, from the Trans Mountain pipeline at Burnaby, B.C., Mr. Hodgson said. The country would welcome the capacity to import more from an expanded Trans Mountain or a new pipeline to the Pacific Coast, he told reporters on Friday.

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“They were very clear with me: They would love to be able to get it off our West Coast, which has significantly shorter shipping times, which means the economics for them are much better,” the minister said.

India processes roughly six million barrels of crude oil each day, virtually all of it imported.

Canada comes in at the low end of suppliers, at around 150,000 barrels a day, compared with the roughly one million imported from Iraq each day, according to Rystad Energy. India also imports oil from Russia. However, the country is backing away from Russian volumes owing to sanctions.

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At the First Ministers meeting in Ottawa this week, B.C. Premier David Eby and Alberta Premier Danielle Smith said they agree on the prospect of a further expansion of the Trans Mountain pipeline, which nearly tripled its capacity last year.

However, Mr. Eby remains opposed to a new pipeline to the northern B.C. Coast, a proposal that is the subject of a memorandum of understanding between Alberta and Ottawa. First Nations along the coast have also expressed staunch opposition, and Ms. Smith said her government has more work to do to try to bring them onside.

A private-sector proponent has yet to back the project and a preferred route has not been announced. Ms. Smith said a delivery point at Kitimat, B.C., is not under consideration.

She also said there is common ground between the two provinces on more LNG development. Mr. Hodgson said India is looking to increase the share of LNG in its energy mix to 15 per cent by 2030 from 6 per cent today, which presents another opportunity.

Relations between the two countries have been tense. In 2023, then-prime-minister Justin Trudeau publicly accused India of a role in the murder that year of a Canadian Sikh leader in Surrey, B.C. – an allegation that Ottawa has never retracted.

When asked about that, Mr. Hodgson referred to Prime Minister Mark Carney’s speech in Davos, Switzerland, last week, where he said Canada must engage with the world as it is and not how we wish it would be. Canada will have “calibrated relationships” around the world, he said.

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“In the conversations that have happened, the Prime Minister and government officials have been very clear that Canada will not compromise on its national sovereignty and that Canada will not tolerate foreign interference,” he said.

“That is understood and accepted by India, and we say the same going the other way, and with that we are focused on where we have common interests, which is around the desire to grow our trade.”

Mr. Hodgson did not bring up the prospect of the northern port of Churchill, Man., being expanded to allow oil and gas exports as part of a multibillion-dollar project, but Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew has raised the notion of oil shipments to India via the Suez Canal.

Mr. Kinew said on Thursday that a major energy company was “kicking the tires” on a proposal for Churchill, without providing more details. The port is limited by a short shipping season, though climate change is expected to extend that in the coming decades, and an expansion could include icebreaking capabilities.

Arctic Gateway Group, the company that operates the port and railway that feeds it, declined to provide details about the energy company that is showing interest. “AGG continues to be engaged with western resource companies including in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba,” spokesman Brad Hartle said in a statement. “AGG sees excellent opportunities to transport the vast resources of Western Canada to global markets in the EU, Africa, Middle East, South America and elsewhere.”