Quote:
As Obama drags heels, Canada turns to China
Moving forward with Asian-market pipeline as Keystone blocked
Published: 3 days ago
author-image Jerome R. Corsi
Jerome R. Corsi, a Harvard Ph.D., is a WND senior staff reporter. He has authored many books, including No. 1 N.Y. Times best-sellers "The Obama Nation" and "Unfit for Command." Corsi's latest book is "Who Really Killed Kennedy?"
NEW YORK – With the increasing importance of oil sales to the Canadian economy and the Obama administration’s continued blocking of plans to build the Keystone Pipeline, Canada is moving ahead with the Enbridge Northern Gateway Project, a pipeline to expedite the shipping of land-locked oil reserves in Alberta to China.
Calgary-based energy giant Enbridge received the approval of Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s government June 17 to proceed with the construction of the $7.3 billion Northern Gateway Project connecting Canada’s rich oil sands in Alberta to a British Columbia port, despite the strong objections of aboriginal “first nation” tribes and environmental activists.
The Harper government in recent months has become increasingly frustrated with the refusal of the Obama administration to approve TransCanada Corporation’s plan to construct the Keystone XL pipeline.
On June 12, Bloomberg reported Canadian Finance Minister Joe Oliver, along with Natural Resources Minister Greg Rickford and Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird, traveled to New York to charge in media interviews and at an energy conference that President Obama has “unfairly entangled” the $5.4 billion pipeline project with U.S. politics.
The Northern Gateway pipeline, with a capacity of 525,000 barrels per day, will extend 715 miles from the oil sands at Bruderheim, Alberta, to storage tanks on the Pacific Ocean in Kitimat, British Columbia, where it will be shipped to Asian markets.
Todd Nogier, a manager of Western Access communications for Enbridge, explained to WND in a telephone interview the nexus between the blocked Keystone XL Pipeline and the Canadian government’s decision to move forward with the Enbridge Northern Gateway Project.
“Canada exports some 2 million barrels of oil per day and currently the U.S. is the only export market for Canadian oil,” Nogier said.
“We recognize that domestic oil production in the U.S. is rising exponentially. This highlights for Canadian oil producers and for Canadians in general that we need to find markets beyond the United States. Right now, the highest margin markets for oil are in the Asian Pacific, and we are looking to access those markets for Canadian oil.”
He affirmed the Chinese energy markets “are quite interested in Canadian crude.”
Enbridge owns 50 percent of the Northern Gateway Project, with the remaining 50 percent split among several oil production company partners, including Canadian oil and gas company Nexen Inc.
Nexen was taken over by China National Offshore Oil Corporation, CNOOC, a Chinese state-owned oil and natural gas giant, for an estimated $15.1 billion in 2013, as well as Chinese government-owned Sinopac Canada.
Nogier further detailed the importance of the oil industry to Canada’s economy.
“Canadians are becoming increasingly aware of the economic vulnerabilities in having only one export market,” he said.
“The energy sector in Canada is a very meaningful piece of the Canadian economy,” he said. “There are plans to expand Canadian oil production exponentially over the next 10 or 20 years, with estimates Canadian oil production will double. So, we need to find additional markets for Canadian oil.”
Nogier emphasized the expansion of the Canadian crude oil business translates into revenue and jobs.
“Over the next 15 years, there are estimates the Canadian oil sands will add some $2.1 trillion dollars to the Canadian economy,” he said.
An estimated 900,000 additional jobs will be created in the Canadian economy over the next two decades.
“Oil is clearly Canada’s most valuable export commodity,” he said. “We view the Northern Gateway as a nation-building infrastructure project.”
Nogier detailed the regulatory hurdles the Enbridge Northern Gateway Project has surmounted to gain approval from the Canadian government.
Prior to the federal government’s June 17 approval, Enbridge engaged in a joint review process consisting of a three-person tribunal that assisted the National Energy Board in the regulatory evaluation, he said. A series of 20 public hearings was held along the proposed pipeline route in Alberta and British Columbia.
Nogier said the hearing process culminated with a Joint Review Panel that investigated all issues involved in the pipeline construction and operation, including environmental concerns. Some 80 experts were heard on various issues along with testimony from various stakeholders and the public.
In December 2013, the Joint Review Panel recommended to the Canadian government that the project should be approved, subject to 209 conditions.
“If we meet the 209 conditions, we will be given an operator’s license and we can go forward,” Nogier explained.
The conditions range from environmental protection issues to requirements for additional consultation with various stakeholder groups.
On Sept. 11, 2007, WND was first to report on the decision in October 2006 of the Canadian minority government, then under the direction of Conservative Party leader Stephen Harper, to launch the Asia-Pacific Gateway and Corridor Initiative to prepare Canadian deep-water Pacific Ocean ports to facilitate the import and export of tanker and multi-modal container traffic in a “free trade gateway” between Asia and North America.
Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2014/08/as-obama-drags-heels-canada-turns-to-china/#ZjodkmMQpGJIQVcS.99
Regards,
hm
