A couple weeks ago, I got an email from a conference I will attend at the end of May, an email that totally floored me.
Donald Trump, presumptive Republican candidate for president, would be the final speaker on the last day of the Williston Basin Petroleum Conference in Bismarck, N.D.
And if I can snag my usual seat at the front of the room, I鈥檒l be sitting 30 feet from the podium.
The Williston Basin Petroleum Conference started as a gathering of geologists. It alternates between Regina and Bismarck. The conference is hosted by the Saskatchewan Ministry of Economy, North Dakota Petroleum Council and North Dakota Department of Mineral Resources, with each jurisdiction taking turns. Since the Bakken boom hit, North Dakota鈥檚 oil production rose from 90,000 barrels per day to 1,119,000 barrels per day today. This conference has correspondingly grown in size. Two years ago there were more than 4,200 attendees. It is the most important conference of its type for the oil business in southeast Saskatchewan and North Dakota.
As former Saskatchewan Party leader Elwin Hermanson used to say about Alberta and Saskatchewan, 鈥淒inosaurs died on both sides of the border.鈥�
Well, oil isn鈥檛 made of dead dinosaurs, but the point is the same. In fact, the accepted thinking among geologists is that all oil in southeast Saskatchewan was produced in the 鈥渒itchen鈥� around Williston, and over millions of years, flowed north until it was caught in various traps from which we now produce it.
That鈥檚 a long way of saying that geology doesn鈥檛 care about current borders, which is why I go to this conference, which Donald Trump will now be attending.
I expect it might be the only time Donald Trump makes it to North Dakota, given its tiny population and even tinier electoral college impact. However, energy seems to be important to Trump, so it makes sense for him to attend.
It doesn鈥檛 look like there will be a media availability, but if there is, I would like to ask him, 鈥淎s one of the few Canadian journalists here, I鈥檇 like to ask if you would grant a presidential permit to the Keystone XL pipeline and invite TransCanada to go ahead with the project?鈥�
Or if I am really feisty, 鈥淚 have been to almost every type of Canadian oil and gas facility, and I have yet to encounter an American soldier or marine necessary to guard it. Nor have American military personnel lost lives or limbs protecting American access to Canadian oil. What will you do about the Keystone XL project?鈥�
In the States, security trumps all, (See what I did there?) so I would probably go with the second version.
This is a once in a lifetime chance for me. I鈥檓 curious to see just what he鈥檚 like, and what he has to say. What will he say? Will he talk about energy independence? Or will he talk about building a wall while in a city where the foreigners are Canadians, not Mexicans? I鈥檝e written before, harshly, about his views. Now I should get the chance to see him up close and almost personal.
Donald Trump has upended the American political system like no other in generations. In a few weeks time, I鈥檒l write here about what the experience was like.
I have chills in anticipation.
鈥� Brian Zinchuk is editor of Pipeline News. He can be reached at [email protected].
