Oil and Gas Sector-Politics and Image – Page 138

Political will not enough to fuel new oil sands refineries – by John Ivison (National Post – February 3, 2012)

February 3, 2012

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

Top of the agenda for Stephen Harper when he visits Beijing next week will be the sale of Canada’s crude oil to China. The Conservative government’s enthusiasm for exporting this country’s raw resources has come under fire for perpetuating our reputation as hewers of wood and drawers of water.

New Democrats, such as leadership candidate Brian Topp, have called for raw bitumen from Canada’s oil sands to be processed at home before being sent south to the United States or to Asia.

“Canada is throwing away its economic future when we anchor our economy, our currency and our public revenues on the export of raw, unprocessed resources that can be processed here,” he said.

It is an argument that has supporters across the political spectrum. Former Alberta premier Peter Lougheed has added his voice to calls for oil sands bitumen to be refined in Alberta.

Why Republican voters are up in arms over Keystone XL – by David Weigel (National Post – February 1, 2012)

February 1, 2012

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

THE VILLAGES, Fla. — Newt Gingrich’s schedule, 72 hours before the Florida primary, went like this: church, parking lot of a retirement mega-city, church. His only speech of the day is here, in a grove of tidy homes and souped-up golf carts. As the Villagers stand, or sit in their chairs, or stay in their carts to sip Arizona Iced Tea or frappes, Gingrich explains why Barack Obama is failing them.

“He recently vetoed the Keystone pipeline,” says Gingrich. Boo! Boo! Boo!

“Now, think about it! He did it to appease left-wing environmental extremists in San Francisco.” “Ugh,” mutters a retiree near the press riser. Gingrich laid on the scares with a trowel; an ugh was the least he could do.

“Think about what would come of this,” Gingrich continues. “Here was an opportunity to have oil come from Canada through the United States, to the largest petrochemical complex in the world, in Houston.

Our peak oil premium – by Thomas Homer-Dixon (Globe and Mail – February 1, 2012)

February 1, 2012

The 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.

Thomas Homer-Dixon is director of the Waterloo Institute for Complexity and Innovation and CIGI Chair of Global Systems at the Balsillie School of International Affairs in Waterloo, Ont.

Peak oil – it’s history, right? Everything has changed so fast.

Two years ago, the world was facing an intractable oil crisis. “By 2012, surplus oil production capacity could entirely disappear,” the U.S. Defence Department declared in a major report. “A severe energy crunch is inevitable without a massive expansion of production and refining capacity.”

But now we’re told that the world is awash in oil. Deepwater production from the Gulf of Mexico and offshore Brazil is soaring. New “elephant” fields have been discovered off Ghana and possibly Angola. Meanwhile, hydrofracking technology is liberating hundreds of thousands of barrels a day from “tight” shale oil formations in North Dakota and Texas, with more coming on line from Colorado, Wyoming and even Ohio.

Shale gas the place to be – by Claudia Cattaneo (National Post – January 31, 2012)

January 31, 2012

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

The Obama administration’s endorsement last week of shale gas as a major pillar of its made-in-America energy vision ensures a long-term future for the resource.

The big question is: How does the North American sector survive today’s depressed market environment so it can deliver the 600,000 jobs and the economic stimulus expected from shale gas development?

For companies like Calgary-based Encana Corp., one of the top shale gas producers in the U.S., it comes down to short-term pain for long-term gain. “You will see less and less drilling for a period of time,” Eric Marsh, executive vice-president, natural gas economy and senior vice president, USA division, said in an interview.

Alberta Cree official admits dilemma over Gateway as Edmonton hearings begin – by Trish Audette (National Post – January 30, 2012)

January 30, 2012

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

Edmonton — The lead community-industry liaison for the Enoch Cree First Nation finds herself in a “bind” when it comes to the controversial Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline proposal.

“We were known as the caretakers of the land . . . if you’re going to take something from the land, give something back,” Leigh Ann Ward said Tuesday at hearings of National the Energy Board-Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency panel in Edmonton. “There is a need for (the pipeline), but what are the environmental impacts?”

At the same time, Ward is interested in the economic benefits of the proposed pipeline, which would carry Alberta bitumen to port in Kitimat, B.C., where it would be loaded aboard Asia-bound tankers.

“We want it to go ahead because this will ensure employment for our band members,” she said, noting as many as 24 members are already trained to work on pipeline construction. “The benefits are really, really high.”

Scrutinizing Canada’s pipeline to Beijing – by Terry Glavin (National Post – January 30, 2012)

January 30, 2012

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

Canada is at the brink of a radical shift in energy and foreign policy. But there has been no debate of any consequence about it — not in the House of Commons, not in the Senate, not in the proceedings of a Royal Commission. Certainly not in the news media.

Here’s what you’ve been missing.

Ostensibly, it’s about the Enbridge project, a plan to pump condensate eastward from the coast to Alberta so that Alberta bitumen can be made fluid enough to be pumped back to the coast at Kitimat — then put into oil tankers to be sent down Douglas Channel and out into the roaring North Pacific, eventually landing in California and Asia.

As recently as last fall, John Bruk, the founding president of the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada and as fervent a booster of trade with China as you’ll meet, was cheering Stephen Harper and wishing him all the best with his trade engagements in the Forbidden City.

Sweeten the deal for mining companies in Ring of Fire: Bisson – by By Ron Grech (Timmins Daily Press – January 30, 2012)

January 30, 2012

The Daily Press is the city of Timmins broadsheet newspaper

NDP seeks support from Liberals

The New Democrats are suggesting the province use a carrot instead of a stick to convince chromite mining companies operating in the Ring of Fire to do all their processing in Ontario.

The NDP will ask the government to cover infrastructure costs as an incentive. “The Ontario government has got to respond by providing infrastructure to the site, namely hydro and transportation, which are critical to making it work,” said MPP Gilles Bisson (NDP — Timmins-James Bay).

Bisson is working with other member of the NDP caucus to put together an incentive package which they intend to pitch to the governing Liberal Party within the next couple of weeks.

The package would include an offer to develop transportation to the site in the form of railway or roads, as well as offer an industrial energy rate in the form of about four cents or less per kilowatt hour.

The [resource] race to China – by Claudia Cattaneo (National Post – January 28, 2012)

January 28, 2012

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

KITIMAT, B.C. — In a climate of growing hostility toward energy industry development across North America, Timothy Wall, president of the Canadian unit of Houston-based Apache Corp., took the road less travelled to the heart of Kitimat.

He flew multiple times to the 9,000-resident town on the northern British Columbia coast to ensure support for his liquefied natural gas plans. He unleashed a team to explain the challenges and the benefits.

He won over the local aboriginals, the Haisla Nation, by meeting with them, acknowledging their rights, making them his landlords. “We had a big push … trying to make this a win-win for everybody,” Mr. Wall, who is originally from Houston, said in an interview.

“We told the stakeholders in the Kitimat area that there would be challenges, but that we would work through them. That with everybody pulling in the right way, we would get there.”

The two-year effort paid off with widespread community support for Apache’s plan to pipe natural gas from fields at the other end of the Rockies, build a terminal down the canal in Bish Cove to liquefy it, and transport it by tanker to Asia.

Obama loves oil — Not! – by Peter Foster (National Post – January 27, 2012)

January 27, 2012

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

Nothing more clearly indicates U.S. President Barack Obama’s economic muddledom and ideological stubbornness than the dog’s breakfast of energy policies revealed in Tuesday’s State of the Union address. The good news is that hydrocarbons are back (as long as you forget Keystone XL). The bad news is that “clean” energy isn’t going away. Instead it’s “all of the above.”

Without his nose growing visibly, the President claimed the government was behind the technological advances that led to the current shale gas boom, and even suggested that he might take credit for the rise in domestic oil production. In fact, Mr. Obama’s administration has hampered and castigated oil companies at every turn. In the light of the hysterical grandstanding over the BP Gulf spill (whose impact proved to be greatly exaggerated), it was ironic indeed to hear the President now declare a great opening up of offshore exploration.

The industry has responded to attacks by becoming more innovative and productive. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, between 2007 and 2010, U.S. oil production grew from 5.1 million barrels a day (mbd) to 5.5 mbd. The agency predicts domestic production will hit 6.7 mbd by 2020, helping take imports down to 36% of domestic usage in 2035 from 60% in 2005. So much for peak oil.

Obama adopts gas for future – by Claudia Cattaneo (National Post – January 26, 2012)

January 26, 2012

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

Global energy superpower versus inward-focused fortress. It’s hard to believe these are the energy visions of Canada and the United States, and that it’s Canada that is going big, while the U.S. is going home.

But there you have it. After nixing the Keystone XL pipeline that would have imported lots of secure oil-sands oil from Canada, U.S. President Barack Obama made it abundantly clear in his State of the Union address that he wants a future based on U.S.-made energy, even if it takes subsidies to get there.

But not just green energy, which has been central to his energy vision in the past. He’s now embracing natural gas from shale, a fossil fuel deplored by his green constituents, but whose supplies are surging globally without his support, thanks to advancements made and funded by Big Oil, including Canadian companies and entrepreneurs.

Foreign influx in oil sands top issue – by Claudia Cattaneo (National Post – January 22, 2012)

January 23, 2012

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

The heated debate over new export pipelines has morphed in recent days into a debate over foreign meddling into Canadian oil sands development.

The issue was thrust into prime time by Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver when they questioned the legitimacy of foreign environmental organizations stirring the pot against the Northern Gateway pipeline, a Canadian project they have turned into an extension of their successful fight in the U.S. against Keystone XL.

Foreign groups shot back the debate over the oil sands is a global one, and that foreign oil companies are also meddling into Canadian affairs because they are driving their expansion.

Here’s the wrinkle: according to an independent poll by Toronto-based Forum Research Inc., Canadians are more worried about increasing foreign ownership in the oil and gas industry, which lately has seen a surge in Asian purchases, than about foreign environmental organizations targeting the oil sands.

Follow the Keystone money, then expose the misinformation – by Peter Foster (National Post – January 20, 2012)

January 23, 2012

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

Don’t just follow the money — expose the hysterical misrepresentations and the tactics

Congressional Republican attempts to force U.S. President Barack Obama’s hand on the Keystone XL pipeline produced the required result on Wednesday, at least from the GOP perspective. The President gave the project the thumbs-down, and Republicans instantly castigated Mr. Obama as a job destroyer.

For his part, the President naturally made no mention of toadying to radical greens, and even claimed that he had nothing against the pipeline, which would create tens of thousands of jobs and is designed to take up to 900,000 barrels a day of diluted bitumen from the Alberta oil sands to the Gulf Coast. His rejection, rather, was due to Congress’s “rushed and arbitrary deadline,” which prevented the State Department from gathering material necessary to “protect the American people.”

Such electoral manoeuvering has hardly done Keystone sponsor TransCanada — or the oil sands more generally — any favours. Prime Minister Stephen Harper expressed “profound disappointment” at Wednesday’s decision, and reportedly told Mr. Obama of Canada’s determination to diversify export markets. This will be easier said than done.

Rhetoric over substance: Obama and the Keystone XL decision – by Duggan Flanakin and Redmond Weissenberger (Troy Media – January 22, 2012)

January 22, 2012

This article is from: http://www.troymedia.com/

The Keystone XL project would ensure the U.S, jobs, affordable energy and national security, which Obama purports to support

TORONTO, ON, Jan. 22, 2012/ Troy Media/ – Oilfield workers in Alberta, refinery workers in Texas and countless factory workers have now learned that the White House will not allow construction of an oil pipeline that would bring over half a million barrels of oil a day from Canada’s Alberta Province and North Dakota’s Bakken Field to refineries in Texas and Louisiana.

The job-killing decision was a victory for radical environmentalists and well-heeled U.S. foundations that have long battled Canadian oil sands companies and the U.S. oil and gas industry. Not in “the national interest”

U.S. President Barack Obama says Congress gave him insufficient time to examine environmental issues. TransCanada Keystone Pipeline LP can reapply, he added, if it reroutes the pipeline around Nebraska’s Ogallala Aquifer and Sand Hills area and addresses other concerns. In the meantime, the Administration insists, the project “would not serve the national interest.”

Alberta oilsands crucial to have-not Ontario future – by Greg Van Moorsel (Sudbury Star – January 20, 2012)

January 22, 2012

The Sudbury Star is the City of Greater Sudbury’s daily newspaper.

“Alberta government figures show oilsands investment over
the last decade topped $100 billion. Ontario’s only new
auto plant built over the same period, Toyota’s Woodstock
complex, checked in at $1.1 billion.” (Greg Van Moorsel)

An early investor in the Alberta oilsands, Ontario cashed out a generation ago. That said, Canada’s most populous province still stands to lose from the setback dealt the oilsands industry and the hottest economic province by U.S. President Barack Obama’s rejection of the proposed Alberta-to-Texas Keystone XL pipeline.

After the 1970s oil crisis, Queen’s Park bought a sizeable stake in a pioneering Athabasca oilsands venture.

That was before dwindling conventional oil supplies and surging prices made the capital-intensive oilsands the boomer it is now.

But while Queen’s Park sold out in the 1990s, its books then awash in red ink like they are now, Ontario still accrues huge benefits from the oilsands: Alberta jobs for its many unemployed workers, shots at manufacturing much of the needed equipment and, like all other “have-not” provinces, equalization payments that flow to it from an Alberta government now paying many of Canada’s net bills.

With Keystone, it’s Harvard vs. the heartland – by Margaret Wente (Globe and Mail – January 21, 2012)

January 21, 2012

The 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.

Two people named Redford have sharply differing opinions about Barack Obama’s decision to block the contentious Keystone XL oil pipeline, which would have run from Alberta down to Texas. The obscure Redford (Alison, the Premier of Alberta) is “bitterly disappointed,” while the famous Redford (Robert, the Hollywood celebrity) is ecstatic. He calls it “a victory of historic proportions” against “one of the most nightmarish fossil fuel projects of our time.” Whose side you’re on may say a lot about where you live and who you voted for.

For environmentalists, the decision is a long-overdue down payment on Mr. Obama’s campaign promise to wean the U.S. from its dependency on oil. But it’s much more than that. It’s a stand against the rape and pillage of the planet by greedy corporate interests that have politicians in their pockets. These environmentalists don’t really care about safety matters such as oil leaks or possible pollution of the aquifers. It’s the oil sands they hate – the water-gulping, forest-devastating, carbon-spewing monster that’s despoiling Mother Earth.