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“Global demand for oil and gas continues to rise every year, we can either be part of the solution or we can be the world’s Boy Scouts. Every other country in the world with oil and gas is going to be happy to supply that,” he said.

The report said Twitter had suspended thousands of accounts that had been posting critically about Canadian pipelines — potentially in an effort to maintain Russian, Iranian and Venezuelan market share in India and China.

Natural Resources Minister Amarjeet Sohi said Tuesday it is “concerning” that actors outside Canada are trying to influence the country’s economic development. “Misinformation and information that is not based on facts is never healthy for any democratic process,” he said.

Calgary-based Cenovus and other oilsands companies are suffering losses as Canadian heavy oil prices trade at a discount to international benchmarks amid constrained capacity on pipelines.

Still, Pourbaix continues to believe that new pipelines, including the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion to the West Coast and Keystone XL project to the heavy oil hub of the U.S. Gulf Coast, will be built.

Cenovus announced on an earnings call Wednesday that it had increased its shipping commitments on Keystone XL to 150,000 bpd from 50,000 bpd.

“I really view this as a no-regrets strategy,” Pourbaix said, adding that the cost of shipping on Keystone XL will be under US$10 per barrel and the company would send its oilsands product directly to the world’s largest market for heavy oil. “From our perspective, we really do not have any material financial risk in the event the project doesn’t proceed.”