When brand new American president Biden cancelled the Keystone XL pipeline (again) and halted Federal lands drilling permits, the US oil industry cried foul.  For the 5% of America’s oil companies that work on Federal lands the action does hurt, but for the other 95% and for the entire oilfield service industry, this is Christmas arriving eleven months early.

If you are a manufacturer of, say, umbrellas in the United States, are you happy or sad when your largest Canadian umbrella competitor is barricaded from shipping umbrellas to the US?  Are you happy or sad when your competitor in New Mexico has his factory burn to the ground?  Since it still rains, demand for umbrellas didn’t change, so demand for YOUR umbrellas just got a LOT bigger, plus you can probably charge more because competition just got eliminated.

So why the American oil industry’s outcry about the cancellation of the pipeline and Federal lands?

Here’s who should be spitting mad:  Canadians and the public-school teachers of New Mexico.  American oil and gas companies with no exposure to Federal lands should be throwing parties in celebration of Biden’s unintended gift to the industry.  Remember, Biden did nothing to eliminate demand – he did everything to eliminate supply, which will drive oil and gas prices higher and higher, faster and faster.

Stay tuned to a podcast we will soon release that addresses the other Christmas gift Biden is giving oilfield service companies when he pays us to plug 1 million “leaking” gas wells and the thousand years it will take to break even on the government’s investment.

PS:  Spears & Associates has investments in Canada, clients in Canada, friends in Canada.  What our American president did to Canada is awful.  The Spears family has relatives and friends throughout New Mexico who live on state pensions and have state jobs.  What our president just did to you is awful. The majority of the American oil industry will get rich as a result of these executive orders and you, along with the American consumer, will bear the brunt of the resulting pain.