Oliver threatens trade fight if EU taxes oil-sands crude – by Steven Chase (Globe and Mail – May 9, 2013)

Globe and Mail is Canada’s national newspaper with the second largest broadsheet circulation in the country. It has enormous influence on Canada’s political and business elite.

Ottawa — Canada’s Natural Resources Minister is raising the prospect of a trade fight with the European Union over its proposal to label oil-sands crude as dirty even as both sides try to seal a major deal to liberalize two-way.

In Brussels on Wednesday, Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver said Ottawa would consider launching a complaint with the World Trade Organization, the global referee for commercial disputes, if the EU proceeds with a fuel-quality directive that singles out crude from Canada’s oil sands as the most harmful to the planet’s climate.

The directive would effectively slap an import tax on oil-sands crude because refiners who use it would face extra costs. EU refiners are required to cut carbon content in fuels by 6 per cent or pay a penalty.

Ottawa fears the directive would hurt Canada’s ability to open new markets for its oil and depress prices for North American crude. “This fuel-quality directive is discriminatory towards Canadian oil and not supported by scientific facts,” Mr. Oliver said.

A spokesman for International Trade Minister Ed Fast said that Ottawa believes Canada’s campaign for better treatment for the oil sands will not affect trade talks with Brussels.

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‘No such thing as ethical oil,’ Al Gore tells Toronto audience – by Ivan Semeniuk (Globe and Mail – May 8, 2013)

Globe and Mail is Canada’s national newspaper with the second largest broadsheet circulation in the country. It has enormous influence on Canada’s political and business elite.

Declaring that “American democracy has been hacked,” former U.S. vice-president Al Gore told a Toronto audience that his countrymen needed to wake up to the special interests that have a grip on the levers of power in the U.S. Congress and are able to block legislation on a range of policy issues including his signature cause, global climate change.

Mr. Gore added that he felt action on climate change was possible, indeed inevitable, once it was viewed by enough people as a matter of personal values. “When these kind of issues settle into a choice between right and wrong, then the moral clarity that eventually develops makes it possible to move quickly.”

In a public interview with The Globe and Mail’s editor-in-chief, John Stackhouse, Mr. Gore also spoke of his wish that U.S. president Barack Obama would cancel the Keystone XL pipeline intended to transport heavy crude from the Alberta oil sands to U.S. refineries. In part because oil-sands crude requires more energy to extract than conventional sources, and so produces more greenhouse gases per barrel, he suggested that the full social and environmental cost of developing the oil sands made it a more expensive proposition than a faster move by the U.S. to renewable sources.

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Resources Minister takes bitumen battle to Europe – by Shawn McCarthy (Globe and Mail – May 8, 2013)

Globe and Mail is Canada’s national newspaper with the second largest broadsheet circulation in the country. It has enormous influence on Canada’s political and business elite.

OTTAWA — Environmentalists are warning the European Union’s proposed fuel-quality directive could curtail imports of oil-sands-derived diesel from the U.S. Gulf Coast and drive down the price of Canadian crude.

It’s a warning that Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver is clearly taking seriously as he visits European capitals to argue that the proposed fuel standard unfairly discriminates against Canada and underestimates emissions of crude now imported into Europe from countries such as Nigeria and Russia.

The standard assesses penalties for high-carbon fuels. Mr. Oliver wants the EU to revamp the existing proposal to reduce the difference in how it would treat oil sands producers versus other sources of oil.

While Ottawa’s objections were once based on fear of a negative precedent that could migrate to this side of the Atlantic, it is now clear the proposal could have tangible impacts on the North American crude market. Canadian producers and U.S. refiners increasingly see Europe as an attractive export destination – both for crude from Canada if a west-to-east pipeline gets built, and for petroleum products made from Alberta bitumen refined in the U.S. Gulf Coast.

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B.C. election outcome crucial for Alberta – by Gillian Steward (Toronto Star – May 7, 2013)

The Toronto Star has the largest circulation in Canada. The paper has an enormous impact on federal and Ontario politics as well as shaping public opinion.

Campaign looks like a referendum on oil marketing strategies vital to the Alberta economy.

CALGARY—Never has more been at stake for Alberta in a B.C. provincial election than now. Viewed from Calgary, the campaign looks like a referendum on the oil marketing strategies that both the Alberta and federal governments — and the energy industry — have been banking on for years.

So this time it really matters for Alberta which party — the Liberals or the NDP — emerges victorious.

Alberta is landlocked; it needs access to B.C.’s ports and coastline if the oil it produces is to get to markets other than the U.S.

But while various pipelines transporting oil and other fuels from Alberta have criss-crossed B.C. for more than 60 years, proposals for new or expanded pipelines have become potent symbols for Liberal Leader (and current premier) Christy Clark and NDP Leader Adrian Dix as they lay out their visions for the future of the province.

Both leaders have said no to Enbridge’s proposed Northern Gateway Pipeline that would reach from northern Alberta across the wilds of northern B.C. to Kitimat so diluted bitumen from the oilsands can be funneled onto tankers and shipped to China and other emerging markets.

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As B.C. election looms, both NDP and Liberals take hard line on oil pipelines – by Claudia Cattaneo (National Post – May 7, 2013)

The National Post is Canada’s second largest national paper.

The environment, and particularly opposition to oil sands pipelines and tanker traffic, has become a big theme in the B.C. election, forcing both the NDP and the Liberals to take a hard line against what seem to have become politically toxic projects.

With a week to go before British Columbians go to the polls, Liberal Christy Clark has distanced herself from proposed oil sands pipelines, after front-runner Adrian Dix, leader of the NDP, said two weeks ago he is opposed to both Enbridge Inc.’s Northern Gateway and Kinder Morgan’s TransMountain expansion. With the Green Party also opposed to both, only the shrinking provincial Conservative Party remains supportive.

It’s not an encouraging scenario for pipeline proponents, the province of Alberta or the federal government, which has made oil-market diversification to Asia a key plank of its national agenda.

What’s interesting is that the green factor is influencing the campaign at a time voters are mostly worried about the weak provincial economy, and despite past political failure (remember the federal Liberal Green Shift?) to push environmental issues to the political front lines.

“I think the green issue has become for a lot of people a ballot box issue,” said Michael Prince, a professor of social policy at the University of Victoria. “It’s one of the ones that they are going to have in their mind the day they go into vote.” Why?

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‘We don’t need Alberta’: Clark pushes natural gas as key to B.C.’s success – by Justine Hunter (Globe and Mail – May 6, 2013)

Globe and Mail is Canada’s national newspaper with the second largest broadsheet circulation in the country. It has enormous influence on Canada’s political and business elite.

VANCOUVER — B.C. Liberal Leader Christy Clark is adopting a harder line with the rest of the country on resource development, saying her province doesn’t need to carry Alberta oil to market to be an economic force in Confederation.

The governing Liberals are heading into the final week of an election campaign still trailing the opposition New Democratic Party.

A centrepiece of the Liberal campaign has been support for creating a new liquefied natural gas industry, which Ms. Clark touts as a clean alternative to Alberta oil that, once established, could retire the province’s debt.

On Sunday, Ms. Clark was pessimistic about the future of either of two current oil pipeline proposals that would move Alberta’s oil to the coast for export.

“The pipelines that are of most interest to British Columbians are liquefied natural gas,” Ms. Clark said Sunday in meeting with The Globe and Mail’s editorial board. “That’s something we can do and we don’t need the federal government and we don’t need Alberta,” Ms. Clark said. “We can do this ourselves and make this contribution to our country and our province without their help.”

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Canadian minister takes fight for oil sands crude to Europe – by David Ljunggren (Reuters Canada – May 5, 2013)

http://ca.reuters.com/

OTTAWA (Reuters) – A European Union plan to label crude from the Alberta oil sands as dirty is unfair and could damage Canada’s bid to find new export markets, the Canadian resources minister said at the start of a mission to lobby against the idea.

As part of a plan to cut greenhouse gases from transport fuel, the EU’s executive commission has developed a Fuel Quality Directive that would single out oil from Alberta’s tar sands as more polluting than conventional crude.

Canada, whose oil sands are the world’s third-largest proven reserves of crude, strongly opposes the move.

Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver, speaking at the start of a week-long trip to Paris, Brussels and London, said the directive should be changed to ensure it does not discriminate against crude from the oil sands.

“We think that’s critical as an alternative to what we view as a flawed and ineffective approach that’s proposed by the commission,” he told Reuters in an interview from Paris.

Extracting crude from the clay-like Alberta oil sands requires more energy than conventional oil production. Environmentalists say that increases greenhouse gas emissions, making the oil sands a top target for the green movement.

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The case for the Kitimat refinery – by David Black (National Post – April 29, 2013)

The National Post is Canada’s second largest national paper.

Last year Canada’s trade deficit was $12-billion — compared to a $45-billion surplus in 2007. CIBC’s deputy chief economist, Benjamin Tal, has defined our national challenge: “The volume of Canadian exports today is at the same level it was a decade ago. Regardless of how you look at it, this was a lost decade for Canadian exports. “

I believe Canadians — and British Columbia, in particular — can do something about this worrying trend.

I have been in Beijing in recent weeks to sign a memorandum of understanding with the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, the largest bank in China, to finance a $15-billion oil refinery on Canada’s west coast. This MOU states that China will finance the refinery and find markets for all of its output. My company, Kitimat Clean, will build this state-of-the-art refinery in Kitimat, B.C.

The economic benefits for Canada are enormous. The Kitimat refinery will process 550,000 barrels per day of diluted bitumen from the Alberta oil sands, delivered to the site by an environmentally acceptable pipeline (my preference) or by rail. The bitumen will be processed there into value-added fuel products the world needs: 100,000 barrels per day of gasoline; 50,000 of jet fuel and 250,000 of diesel fuel.

With export revenue of roughly $16-billion a year, the refinery will more than balance the country’s trade deficit.

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NDP leader’s green pandering could return B.C. to dark ages – by Claudia Cattaneo (National Post – April 24, 2013)

The National Post is Canada’s second largest national paper.

With only three weeks to go to the British Columbia provincial election, the anti-resource development stance of the favoured candidate, NDP leader Adrian Dix, is looking scary.

With only three weeks to go to the British Columbia provincial election, the anti-resource development stance of the favoured candidate, NDP leader Adrian Dix, is looking scary.

In fact, it’s looking so anti-Canadian and, in particular, so damaging to Alberta’s interests that Mr. Dix, if elected, can kiss off any constructive relationship with his provincial neighbors.

Pandering to the anti-fossil fuels movement, which seems to have hijacked the election, Mr. Dix on Monday effectively declared his opposition to Kinder Morgan’s plan to expand its TransMountain pipeline from Alberta to Burnaby, B.C.

Already opposed to Enbridge Inc.’s Northern Gateway pipeline plan, Mr. Dix’s TransMountain flip-flop would bar growth in oil sands exports from the West Coast, effectively killing plans for a new market for Canadian oil in Asia. The damage to Canada’s economy would be immense.

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Dix’s pipeline flip-flop is a resource chiller – by Gary Mason (Globe and Mail – April 26, 2013)

Globe and Mail is Canada’s national newspaper with the second largest broadsheet circulation in the country. It has enormous influence on Canada’s political and business elite.

The B.C. election was proceeding along fairly uneventfully until NDP Leader Adrian Dix decided to make it interesting.

Mr. Dix used Earth Day to reverse his previously held position on the proposed $5.4-billion Kinder Morgan pipeline expansion. As recently as two weeks ago, Mr. Dix was saying that – as a matter of principle – he would not prejudge the pipeline builder’s plans until they’d been filed as part of the federal environmental review process later this year. Suddenly, he couldn’t wait any longer.

Now Mr. Dix is against the project, saying he doesn’t believe Vancouver should become a major oil exporting port. Kinder Morgan wants to triple its current pipeline capacity, from 300,000 barrels a day to 890,000 – a move that would significantly increase tanker traffic in the port of Vancouver.

While surprising, the NDP Leader’s position isn’t the roll of the dice it might seem. There are plenty of people in the province who agree with his position, and not just those who make up the enviro brigade. Support for the expanded pipeline is particularly low in the Vancouver area. Many First Nations groups don’t want it, either. That said, it’s widely accepted that Mr. Dix jumped off his earlier stand because of the threat an ascendant Green Party poses for him.

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Alberta exploring at least two oil pipeline projects to Northwest Territories – by Yadullah Hussain (National Post – April 26, 2013)

The National Post is Canada’s second largest national paper.

Hemmed in by unco-operative jurisdictions to the south, west and east, Alberta is looking upward, exploring at least two new northern projects that would help the province get its oil to tidewater, making it available for export to overseas markets.

The Alberta government says it is in “serious talks” with the Northwest Territories to build an oil pipeline connecting the oil sands to the northern hamlet of Tuktoyaktuk, near the Beaufort Sea.

“We have been approached by the government of the Northwest Territories and we are engaged in a conversation with them because they have immense resources as well and are about to take responsibility for their own resources,” Ken Hughes, Alberta’s Minister of Energy told the National Post.

Alberta has hired Canatec Associates International to assess the project’s feasibility, at a cost of $50,000. The Calgary-based consultancy, which specializes in the offshore and Arctic petroleum business, is expected to submit its findings before the end of the year.

Frustrated by Washington’s continuing delays in approving proposals for the U.S.-bound Keystone XL pipeline, Alberta is also getting negative signals from its western border.

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Northwest Territories targets China to invest in ‘stranded’ oil and natural gas – by Jeff Lewis (National Post – April 23, 2013)

The National Post is Canada’s second largest national paper.

CALGARY – The $16.2-billion Mackenzie Gas Project was long ago mothballed and exploration drilling in the Beaufort Sea is on ice, but Northwest Territories Premier Bob McLeod is determined to see the region’s billions of barrels of oil and trillions of cubic feet of natural gas developed. What’s more, he believes he’s found the financiers to pay for it.

With a newly minted agreement in hand that sets the stage for transferring oversight of mineral resources and oil and gas from the federal government to the territory, including rights to collect resource royalties for the first time, Mr. McLeod has begun quietly courting investment from China’s state-backed oil giants.

The N.W.T. premier last week met with representatives from 18 Chinese companies through the Canada-China Chamber of Commerce, touting the territory’s potentially recoverable resources of at least 6.2 billion barrels of oil and 71 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.

His audience included representatives from the China National Petroleum Corp., Nexen Inc. owner Cnooc Ltd., China Petrochemical Corp. (known as Sinopec), and the Bank of China. Mr. McLeod is counting on the companies’ deep pockets and deeper thirst for energy to help finance badly needed infrastructure and fund new drilling in the Beaufort Sea and in the Bakken-like shale in the central Mackenzie Valley.

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Obama set to okay pipeline, former insider says, as poll shows support – by John Ibbitson (Globe and Mail – April 22, 2013)

Globe and Mail is Canada’s national newspaper with the second largest broadsheet circulation in the country. It has enormous influence on Canada’s political and business elite.

Barack Obama will almost certainly approve the Keystone XL pipeline, predicts a former senior figure in the State Department who recently brought that message to Ottawa.

“I would say the chances are about four-to-one” in favour of the President approving the pipeline from Alberta to American refineries, said David Gordon. He was director of policy planning when Condoleezza Rice was secretary of state, and is currently head of research at the respected consulting firm Eurasia Group.

Domestic political considerations – including a close fight with Republicans for control of the House of Representatives – make approval virtually inevitable, Mr. Gordon said in an interview.

A new poll obtained by The Globe and Mail shows that fully 63 per cent of Americans said that energy security was a higher priority for them than reducing greenhouse gases, while only 30 per cent felt the opposite.

And 70 per cent of Americans had a positive or somewhat positive view of the Keystone XL proposal, said the survey by Nik Nanos who conducted the research at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington.

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Keystone criticism misplaced, TransCanada CEO insists – by Kelly Cryderman (Globe and Mail – April 22, 2013)

Globe and Mail is Canada’s national newspaper with the second largest broadsheet circulation in the country. It has enormous influence on Canada’s political and business elite.

CALGARY — Keystone XL is “just a pipeline” that will have little impact on the pace of development in the oil sands, says the head of TransCanada Corp., hitting back at opponents who argue that stopping the project is crucial to fighting climate change.

Chief executive officer Russ Girling said the $5.4-billion pipeline has unfairly been cast as the embodiment of the ills of the energy business. But he suggested that oil industry economics, including crude prices and the cost of production, will be more important than one proposed pipeline in determining how quickly Alberta increases its output from the oil sands.

The Keystone project “has become this symbol of everything that’s wrong with the fossil fuel energy industry. And it’s not,” he said. “It transports products from A to B, and it does that safely. It has no material impact on refining markets or supply.”

Mr. Girling’s comments, made in an exclusive interview with The Globe and Mail in advance of TransCanada’s annual meeting this week, illustrate one of the main arguments likely to be employed by the company and its supporters as the Keystone debate heads toward its conclusion.

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‘A battle for the country’s future’: How Joe Oliver has become Canada’s energy pitchman – by Claudia Cattaneo (National Post – April 20, 2013)

The National Post is Canada’s second largest national paper.

From taking on “radical environmentalists” to selling Canadian oil to the Chinese, rewriting regulations to questioning the need for an Alberta-led national energy strategy, Joe Oliver is shaking up the once-sleepy federal natural resources portfolio like Canada’s future depends on it.

And he’ll tell anyone who’ll listen that it does, because either Canada finds a way to develop and sell its immense resources now, or opportunity will pass to others. “We are engaged in a battle for the country’s future,” the 72-year-old grandfather said in an interview during a stop in Calgary this week.

Direct, relentless, unapologetic, Mr. Oliver is the antithesis of political correctness. Like him or hate him, he’s getting more done than many of his predecessors — through initiatives involving First Nations, tanker safety, red-tape reduction.

Even heart surgery in January didn’t slow him down. Next week he’s off to Washington and New York to defend the proposed Keystone XL pipeline to policy makers and the media, in case there are any more questions to be answered or any doubt about Canada as a responsible resource developer.

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