Canadian oil and gas may have slumped to steep discounts compared with U.S. prices, but the leader of one of the country’s biggest natural gas producers says the energy sector can still be made great again.

Michael Rose, president and CEO of Tourmaline Oil, told BNN Bloomberg Wednesday that the country’s oil and gas producers have been struggling because of the view that Canada is a “difficult place to invest.”

“We’re going to do our best as an industry to get those [perceptions] sorted out, and we’ll make Canadian oil and gas great again,” Rose said.

“I think the really smart long term international investors recognize the discount that Canadian companies are currently receiving in the market, and I think the long term patient money, hopefully, will return to Canada.”

Rose added that government policy, especially at the federal level, has “done a lot to chase that capital away.”

He stressed that all levels of government and the entire country should be behind a prosperous and growing LNG business in Western Canada.

“Canada has the best sub-surface resources to support international LNG,” Rose said. “We have the toughest, most stringent emissions standards in the world. So, we should develop as much of the worldwide-increasing demand for LNG right in this country.”

Rose’s comments come as the price for U.S. natural gas for December delivery jumped as much as 20 per cent to US$4.929 per million British thermal units Wednesday – the highest since February 2014. 

AECO spot prices, which is Alberta’s gas trading price, was trading below US$2 per million British thermal units.

Despite the gap between U.S. and Canadian natural gas prices, Rose said it’s been a long time since he saw a $4 price on any type of gas.

“We’d like the AECO price to come up as well and it’s been improving, but it’s certainly not near $4 yet,” Rose said.

However, gas projects on the B.C. coast will make the sector the “place to be” in the medium to long term, he said.

“We’re excited by west coast LNG, which we’ve seen the FID (final investment decision) of one project,” Rose said. “We’re excited that possibly expansions or other FIDs could happen in the next little while as well.”