Canadian PM Eyes China After US Pipeline Delay

[Ryan Ruck]

Canadian PM Eyes China After US Pipeline Delay

November 13, 2011

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Sunday that he was looking at exporting more oil to China after the United States delayed a decision on a controversial pipeline.

President Barack Obama's administration last week put off a decision on Keystone XL project after a major protest campaign by environmentalists, who say the pipeline would be prone to accidents and worsen climate change.

The conservative Canadian leader, taking part in a summit in Hawaii hosted by Obama said the pipeline decision had produced "extremely negative reactions" and that he discussed oil exports with Chinese President Hu Jintao.

"This does underscore the necessity of Canada making sure that we are able to access Asian markets for our energy products," Harper told reporters. "I indicated that yesterday (Saturday) to President Hu of China."

The Harper government has pressed Obama to approve the 1,700-mile (2,700-kilometer) pipeline extension, which would stretch through Montana, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas and Oklahoma before ending up in Texas.

Canada, the pipeline's lead company TransCanada, and Obama's Republican opponents say the $7 billion project would provide the United States with a stable source of energy from an ally and create thousands of jobs.

"I remain optimistic that the project will eventually go ahead because it makes eminent sense," Harper said.

"This project is obviously what's in the best interest not just of the Canadian economy but also of the American economy," he said.

But environmentalists say an accident would be disastrous for aquifers in the US Great Plains and point to spills on an existing Keystone pipeline. The oil comes from tar sands, meaning it produces high levels of carbon emissions blamed for global warming.

The Obama administration, in ordering further study, cited particular concern about the pipeline's planned route through the Sand Hills area of Nebraska, which has a sensitive ecosystem and shallow groundwater.

The State Department delayed a final decision until 2013, after next year's presidential election.

I thought we had a thread about the pipeline delay but I couldn't find it. If someone does and links to it, I'll just move this there.

[American Patriot]

I thought we did too. I saw a bunch of news on that a couple days ago where the current administration is delaying things so that the oil can't flow through the US and "protected areas".

What a crock.

[Phil Fiord]

I saw it too. Unbelievable. I am not upset with Canada as they have oil they need to sell, but this administration is preventing it from flowing so close to our shores. What a$$holes.

[vector7]

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• Montana, Wyoming and Washington Governers discuss coal exports to China
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[vector7]

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• As Iraq Stabilizes, China Eyes Its Oil Fields

PetroChina to take full ownership of Canadian oil sands project for the first time

By Associated Press, Published: January 3

TORONTO — China will take over full ownership over a Canadian oil sands project for the first time after Athabasca Oil Sands Corp announced Tuesday it sold the remaining 40 percent of the MacKay River oil sands development to PetroChina for US$673 million.

The deal continues a trend that has seen China’s state-owned oil companies invest billions of dollars in exploration or production ventures in Canada, Africa, Latin America and elsewhere.

But China’s state-owned oil companies have preferred to take non-operating or minority stakes in oil sands projects in Canada until this latest deal.

The deal does not need the approval from the Canadian government under the the Investment Canada Act.

Athabasca had previously sold PetroChina a 60 percent stake in two oil sands projects, including MacKay river, and the possibility of the Chinese taking over full ownership was included in that deal and approved by the Canadian government.

Athabasca CEO Sveinung Svarte said he exercised the option to sell the remaining stake in MacKay River because the company would rather focus on developing projects it wholly owns.

Although it is the first oil sands project to be fully owned by a Chinese firm, there have full ownership deals involving conventional oil and gas companies in Canada. Sinopec bought conventional oil and gas-focused Daylight Energy Ltd. in its entirety last year.

The sale comes shortly after Alberta regulators approved the project.
The first phase of the MacKay River project is expected to produce 35,000 barrels per day, eventually expanding to 150,000 barrels.

Construction of the project will begin next month with startup targeted for 2014.

China is the world’s second-biggest oil consumer and has a growing appetite for oil that may one day surpass that of the U.S. which views Canada’s oil sands as a pillar of its future energy needs.

Canada is increasingly looking to China to sell its vast oil reserves after the U.S. delayed a decision on the Keystone XL pipeline that would bring oil from Canada to refineries in the U.S. Gulf Coast.

Alberta has the world’s third largest oil reserves, more than 170 billion barrels. Daily production of 1.5 million barrels from the oil sands is expected to nearly triple to 3.7 million in 2025. Overall, Alberta has more oil than Russia or Iran. Only Saudi Arabia and Venezuela have more.

Canada’s only major oil export market is the U.S. But with the product of oil sands and pipeline delivery to the U.S. under perennial clouds of environmental objections, and with Asian demand growing, Canada wants to diversify its market, and China is eager to oblige.

The Chinese have urged the Canadian government to approve a pipeline to Canada’s Pacific coast so that tankers can ship oil sands crude to China.

Sinopec, a Chinese state-controlled oil company, has a stake in a $5.5 billion plan drawn up by the Alberta-based Enbridge company to build the Northern Gateway Pipeline from Alberta to the Pacific coast province of British Columbia.

Sinopec also recently paid $4.6 billion for a 9 percent stake in Syncrude, Canada’s largest oil sands project. Taking partial ownership has been seen as a way for the Chinese companies to make their investments more politically palatable. Chinese state-owned CNOOC was stymied in its bid for U.S. oil and gas producer Unocal Corp. in 2005. It withdrew its $18.5 billion offer after U.S. lawmakers complained about how the sale would jeopardize national security.

Wenran Jiang, a political science professor at the University of Alberta and a senior fellow of the Asia Pacific Foundation, said the Athabasca deal shows that China knows that Canada is more welcoming to Chinese investment in recent years.

He said China would like to see the oil shipped to China eventually but is also content to produce more oil for the global marketplace at spot prices.

“It works out to be a very good equation with the Chinese capital coming in, with the Canadian jobs created and the oil produced and shipped to the United States,” he said.

[vector7]

Keep China Happy: Vote Obama

January 18, 2012 by John Myers


Good news: You don’t need to fret about global war, the economy or even the future value of outstanding U.S. Treasury bills, notes and bonds, at least if China has any say. It is not going to do a single thing to rock America’s boat. In fact, Beijing hopes that things stay smooth as glass, because it holds more than $1.1 trillion of U.S. Treasury debt. And with the direction America is going, the country would love nothing better than to see Barack Obama re-elected.

China’s leaders are not stupid. To them, Obama is the best thing to come along since one-minute rice.

One prominent Republican agrees. Last month, self-promoter extraordinaire Donald Trump wrote an open letter to the President. Trump took issue with Obama regarding the advantages in trade that China is being given, writing: “How little respect the Chinese government has for you.”

Last week, Trump added to his complaints against Obama’s China policy, saying: “They’re having a field day with the United States and our leadership.”

You would have to be an idiot to discount China’s global ambitions. Beijing is covering all of its bases, building a 21^st Century military, piling up IOUs and putting capitalism to work. (Poor Mao Zedong. All he did was turn hundreds of millions of kids into robots and wear a stupid cap.)

The new leaders in China are not peasants like Mao, nor are they blinded by Communist doctrine. They have set their sights on global domination and one of their biggest allies is Obama.

China’s Ambition: Drink Canada Dry

Welcome to Calgary, a global epicenter for energy and home to thousands of Americans, including yours truly. Most of us transplants love it here, and why not? The politics are conservative, the economy is booming and the petroleum industry is strong.

But don’t expect to walk around downtown and see Texans ambling by in cowboy boots and Stetsons. It is more likely you will encounter Chinese nationals staking out the city’s finest restaurants and hotels.

The likes of J.R. Ewing don’t throw much of a wake. However men like Jiang Jiemin, the chairman of PetroChina, do.

Much of the blame lies with Obama because he refuses to renew America’s claim in Canada’s incredibly rich oil sands. By placating the Greens, Obama is frittering away a windfall of petroleum just waiting to be harvested for the benefit of all North American people.

Consider that Canada has the second largest oil reserves in the world. Only Saudi Arabia has more. Canada’s reserves are mostly in the form of shale oil. I have visited the oil sands projects in Northern Alberta, and they are a moonscape. Digging up ground to squeeze oil from rock is a dirty process, but also an effective one. When I first started writing about energy 30 years ago, it cost almost $30 to make a barrel of crude from oil sands. With new technologies, the price has fallen to about $10 per barrel.

While Greens in the United States cry foul over some dead ducks caused by Alberta’s oil sands reservoirs, China appreciates the bonanza that exists here and desperately wants to tap into it.

It won’t be long before China is consuming more oil than the United States.
In September, China’s Ministry of Public Security released a statement indicating that the number of automobiles in China has surged to 100 million. As of the end of August, China registered 219 million motor vehicles in four categories: motorcycles, tractors, trucks and automobiles.

As the President and his Democrats delay Alberta’s oil sands imports that can easily be harvested, China is pouring billions of dollars into Canada. Since 2009, China has invested $16 billion in cash into Canada’s energy projects.

This investment has come about as Ottawa has changed its hard-line policies toward China. Today, Ottawa is busily reassuring Beijing that its investment is safe in Canada.

In response, China has been eager to roll its U.S. dollars into Canadian petroleum projects. Why wouldn’t it? After all, the greenback has been steadily weakening for more than a decade. More recently, the turmoil in North Africa and the Mideast has demonstrated to Chinese investors something that leaders in Washington used to understand: Canada is a safe, secure democracy worth investing in.

The foremost reason for this marriage between Canada and China is that Congressional Democrats openly reject Canadian crude. After 200 years of a peaceful alliance and after fighting two world wars together, Obama and his Green coalition are denouncing Canada — even if it means embracing Muslim Sheiks who enacted two oil embargoes against the United States in the 1970s and who continue to finance Islamic extremists.

Last week, The Financial Post wrote this about the growing alliance between Canada and China:

Canada’s recent Asian market diversification drive after the U.S. State Department delayed the approval of the Keystone XL pipeline has given Chinese energy companies further incentive to invest in Canada. Although keeping a low profile in the intensifying Canadian debate on building more pipelines to the West Coast, China and other Asian countries hope to have access to Canadian oil and gas in the near future.

Communists better understand the advantages of investing in Canada and the most strategic commodity on Earth: oil.

Perhaps we should not be surprised. In the ancient treatise The Art of War, Chinese philosopher Sun Tzu wrote:

A wise general makes a point of foraging on the enemy. One cartload of the enemy’s provisions is equivalent to twenty of one’s own, and likewise a single picul [133.3 pounds] of his provender is equivalent to twenty from one’s own store.

The bottom line is that a vote for Obama is a vote for China. He will continue his policies of the past three years, making Beijing very happy.

China’s leaders are well-educated in history and have undoubtedly have read what Napoleon Bonaparte said: “Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake.”

[vector7]

Under Obama, Oil and Gas Production on Federal Lands Is Down 40%

Rob Bluey
January 18, 2012 at 4:57 pm

In his announcement rejecting the Keystone XL pipeline today, President Obama boasted that under his administration, “domestic oil and natural gas production is up.” Obama, of course, failed to mention that his administration can’t actually take any credit for the increase.

The vast majority of America’s new oil and gas production is happening on private lands in states like North Dakota, Alaska and Texas.

It’s not that Obama is devoid of responsibility. His administration oversees oil and gas production on federal lands by issuing leases. But when measuring oil and gas production in areas under Obama’s jurisdiction, the numbers tell a different story.

Citing publicly available federal data, the House Natural Resources Committee noted these figures:

• Oil and natural gas production on federal lands is down by more than 40 percent compared to 10 years ago.

• Under the Obama administration, 2010 had the lowest number of onshore leases issued since 1984.

• The Obama administration held only one offshore lease sale in 2011.

Despite the Obama administration’s restrictive policies for oil and gas production on federal lands, overall production still increased thanks to the pro-energy policies in states like North Dakota.

“North Dakota has been the poster child for what can happen when we unleash free enterprise and allow states to develop and commercialize their resources,” Heritage’s Nick Loris wrote recently on The Foundry. “North Dakota is drilling at record pace.”

The result: North Dakota’s unemployment rate is 3.4 percent, the lowest in the country. According to a recent report from IHS Global Insight, North Dakota already returned to pre-recession employment along with energy-rich Alaska. Texas is expected to do so in the first quarter of 2012, followed by Nebraska and South Dakota next year.

Those states all have something in common: energy production.

That policy aligns with recommendations from Obama’s own Council on Jobs and Competitiveness, which yesterday issued a report calling for more energy production that includes drilling and pipelines. Here’s the language from the Jobs Council report:

As a nation, we need to take advantage of all our natural resources to spur economic growth, create jobs and reduce the country’s dependence on foreign oil. First, we should allow more access to oil, natural gas and coal opportunities on federal lands. Where sources of shale natural gas have been uncovered, federal, state and local authorities should encourage its safe and responsible extraction. While the administration has supported holding additional lease sales and evaluating new areas for drilling, further expanding and expediting the domestic production of fossil fuels both offshore and onshore (in conjunction with more electric and natural gas vehicles) will reduce America’s reliance on foreign oil and the huge outflow of U.S. dollars this reliance entails. In addition, policies that encourage rapid lease development while emphasizing the highest safety standards will ensure companies responsibly drill for natural gas or oil and mine for coal or other our minerals in federal areas in a timely manner.

With the Keystone XL decision, Obama rejected that advice. “At a time when unemployment remains unacceptably high, Iran is threatening the Strait of Hormuz, and Canada is looking to take this oil elsewhere, it is difficult to understand how the President could say no to thousands of jobs and an increase in energy supply from our ally,” Loris wrote in reaction to the decision.

[American Patriot]

So I walk into the security office this morning to get water for my coffee pot and I hear two of the worst Liberals in the world talking about this pipeline.

One is apparently taking Obama's side, the other the side of "jobs".

The argument though, for Obama was pretty ignorant if you ask me.

"The whole reason for this.. that oil pipeline you know... it's stupid - they want that damned Canadian Oil. That is the DIRTIEST SHIT on the PLANET MAN!"

"Yeah, but we need the JOBS!"

"Screw the jobs, other countries need jobs too, and we don't want that fucking dirty oil in our country!"


What a load of ignorance.

[Ryan Ruck]

Perhaps point out to the one claiming it is the "dirtiest shit on the planet" that we have thousands of pipelines crisscrossing the US carrying millions of gallons of toxic waste yet liberals don't worry about them.

They're called sewers.

Fucking idiots.

[American Patriot]

Perhaps point out to the one claiming it is the "dirtiest shit on the planet" that we have thousands of pipelines crisscrossing the US carrying millions of gallons of toxic waste yet liberals don't worry about them.

They're called sewers.

Fucking idiots.

I don't discuss such things with them. It's not worth my time and effort. They are clueless idiots, Liberals and at least one is a Muslim.

Why bother?

[vector7]

Companion Thread:

• Obama Administration and Soros weaken America

Brazil Stiffs Obama on Oil Deal, Exposing President's Incompetence

By Mark Whittington

• Website

By Mark Whittington | Yahoo! Contributor Network – Sat, Jan 21, 2012



COMMENTARY | President Barack Obama has suffered the second embarrassment over oil imports within the space of a week. Brazil, whose offshore deposits of oil were sought by the Obama administration, has signed contracts with China for the product.

According to the Washington Times, Brazilian offshore crude may number about 38 billion barrels. Obama went to Brazil last month to put in a bid for the oil, offering loans and other support to develop the oil in an "environmentally responsible matter," The Hill reported at the time.

Republicans criticized that initiative, pointing out Obama has placed roadblocks in the way of domestic development of oil and gas reserves.

Brazil's decision comes on the heels of Obama's refusal to permit the building of the Keystone XL pipeline to bring oil from Canada's tar sands in Alberta to Texas oil refineries, according to the Los Angeles Times. The decision was criticized by Republicans as well as union officials who point out that 20,000 jobs the pipeline would bring would therefore not be created.

Obama's policy in regard to oil and gas has been a study in incompetence driven by an ideological mania against hydrocarbon fuel in favor of more politically correct forms of energy production. This has not only led to what amounts to a campaign against oil and gas production in the U.S., but embarrassing scandals such as Solyndra, brought on by unwise federal loan guarantees to dubious green energy companies.

This is occurring at a time when Iran is threatening to close the Strait of Hormuz through which much of the world's oil passes from Persian Gulf fields. The very threat has led to a spike in the price of oil and of gasoline.

Unfortunately, Obama shows no sign of learning from his mistakes. A responsible president would move quickly to exploit more accessible sources of oil, lifting restrictions on domestic production and quickly signing off on the pipeline deal with Canada, an American ally. Obama, however, is doing neither of these things.

A new energy crisis this summer, brought on by turmoil in the Middle East, is not outside the realm of possibility. The bad news is Americans will suffer, just as they did in 1973 and 1979. The good news is Americans are likely to make their ire known at the polls in the fall. But it months of turmoil and agony lay ahead until then.