Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I'd like to direct my question to Dr. Schmitt.
According to the Finnish Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air, Russia has raked in €158 billion since the war began in Ukraine from the sale of oil and gas exports, more than half of which have been to the European Union. In fact, this Finnish research centre has indicated in its report that €43 billion has been added to the Russian budget from the sale of these exports to the European Union.
Canada could displace Russian gas in western Europe. We are the fifth-largest natural gas producer in the world and we have the longest coastline in the world. According to my back-of-the-napkin calculation, a simple 15% increase in Canadian natural gas production could displace more than a third of all Russian gas in western Europe.
Recently, Chancellor Scholz was here in Canada, and he said:
As Germany is moving away from Russian energy at warp speed, Canada is our partner of choice.
He further added comments:
For now this means increasing our LNG imports. We hope that Canadian LNG will play a major role in this.
The Canadian Prime Minister rejected the German request to work with Germany to export more Canadian LNG to Europe.
I'd like your comments on that.