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According to the International Energy Agency’s five-year oil forecast, released Monday, worldwide demand for oil will increase by 7.3 per cent over the next five years and nearly three-quarters of that new demand will be met by oil from the United States.

Because of “tax cuts, relaxed regulations and new technology,” the Americans are in the midst of an energy boom. Oil states such as Texas, Oklahoma, North Dakota and, to a lesser extent Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Alaska are leading economic growth in the U.S.

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Most of those states have annual growth in the 3.0 per cent-plus range and unemployment well under 4.0 per cent.

By 2021, the U.S. will be a net exporter of oil for the first time in decades. And by 2024, it should have surpassed Russia to become the second-biggest exporter in the world. (Saudi Arabia is so far ahead, even a surging U.S. will not catch “the kingdom.”)

So what about Canada? What did the IEA predict for us? Huh? Huh?