Because Canada is a net exporter of diesel, “if push came to shove, we can deal with that,” Tim Hodgson said in an interview in Vancouver. The nation had been exempted from US energy export bans in the past because the two countries’ petroleum industries “are so integrated,” he said.

“I would say keep calm and carry on,” he said. “At the same time, we would always be running scenarios, and what-ifs, and planning, and have backup plans for those sorts of scenarios.”

Diesel prices have soared as energy supplies struggle to get through the Strait of Hormuz amid the Iran War. They have risen further following Ukrainian attacks on Russian refineries that led the Kremlin to halt overseas sales of the fuel. US President Donald Trump said on Sunday that he was still “very seriously” looking at a ban to curb high prices in the US.

Hodgson voiced his support for the perspective of US Energy Secretary Chris Wright, who said earlier this month that such a restriction would not work. That echoed comments by the European Union’s Energy Commissioner Dan Jorgensen. 

“When you talk to the people who are closest to the issue in the US, like Secretary Wright, they’ve got a perspective that we would share, that it wouldn’t be helpful,” Hodgson said.