Thank you very much. It's a pleasure to be here and to speak in front of this committee.
Normand set the stage for many points that could be shared, but I'll reiterate the fact that Canada is a very large energy producer, especially in oil. When you look at the energy exports across Canada in 2024, you see that 25% of all of our exports were energy products, largely dominated by crude oil, with 19% of our exports being crude oil exports.
What is interesting is not only the 2024 picture and the current picture but also the evolution over the years. We have a diverse portfolio of energy products that we export. Normand mentioned electricity, oil and natural gas, but we should also realize that we export a large amount of coal. Actually, coal is more important in our exports than electricity. We also export uranium products—nuclear fuel—which is, overall, not that significant. However, we are still a major uranium producer, and we do export a significant amount.
I'll go over the last 20 or 30 years of exports to show that in the 1980s and 1990s, Canadian exports were not that dependent on energy exports. Around 10% of our exports were based on energy products. From 2000 to 2010, the rise of the oil sands production and the rise in prices, both for natural gas and for crude oil, made hydrocarbon exports more significant in our energy exports. Then, in 2008, when the financial crisis hit, oil prices dropped, which resulted in significant losses in terms of revenues for oil exporters. After 2008, natural gas was not a major source of export revenues anymore, because of the shale gas revolution in the U.S. Natural gas prices have never really recovered from the growth of shale gas. From 2000 to 2010, natural gas and oil were almost equivalent in terms of export revenues, but natural gas revenues have dropped and have never recovered in terms of importance in our energy exports.
Oil prices did recover until 2014, but then again, with the growth of shale gas in the U.S., the global prices for oil decreased. Oil export revenues for Canadian exports dropped again because of this very significant drop in prices. The prices recovered, but in 2020, the COVID pandemic hit prices again, and oil revenues from exports dropped again. They've recovered again; however, since 2022, prices have been declining because of the world's overproduction of oil.
We are in a situation in Canada where, due to the growth of oil production across Canada, prices are fluctuating hugely. The economy of Alberta, the largest oil-producing province in Canada, is very much being put at risk because of its vulnerability to oil prices. Three times in the last 20 years, oil prices have significantly dropped, hurting Alberta's economy because of its dependence on oil.
As Normand said, we are not a significant energy superpower, despite our extremely large production, because our market is split across different provinces with a lot of players and is dependent on the U.S.
What are the barriers to Canadian energy exports? The first one is the low world prices and higher production costs of Canadian oil. These low prices don't provide a prospect for a huge increase in the future.
The second barrier is the limited growth in demand for oil, with diesel and gasoline demand already declining in China. When China and Europe have a declining diesel and gasoline demand, then we should be worried about the future prospect of our markets for oil.