Posted on 10/11/2011 10:49:30 AM PDT by bananaman22
Any American watching cable TV over the past few months can hardly fail to have noticed the seemingly ubiquitous advertisements extolling the virtues of extracting oil from Canadian oil sands, which the commentators assure their audience has a carbon footprint largely comparable with traditional fossil fuels, and which, if developed will provide not only millions of new jobs but billions of dollars for governments as well as energy security by weaning the Western Hemisphere off its addiction to terrorism-tainted Middle East oil.
But don’t break out your checkbook just yet.
Apparently those pesky Eurocrats in Brussels haven’t gotten the message, as on 4 October the European Commission proposed that oil sands crude be ranked as a dirtier source of fuel compared with oil from conventional wells.
The move has unsettled Ottawa, as all of the world’s oil sands reserves are in northern Alberta and Saskatchewan. While Canada does not currently ship any of its oil sands production to Europe, the Canadian energy industry is alarmed that Europe’s green anti-oil-sands policy could influence other global areas, such as Asia, where Canada hopes to develop a market for its oil sands crude exports.
Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers vice-president of oil sands and markets Greg Stringham said, “The concern for us is one of principle and precedent. The importance of it in the EU for us is that it could set a precedent on which others then build their policies,” adding that the EU is playing favorites, as it imports oil from Nigeria and Russia, whose energy products have similar greenhouse gas emissions as oil sands.
The European Commission's decision came after lengthy internal debate, but the body ended up recommending that oil sands-derived fuel be given a greenhouse gas rating of 107 grams per megajoule, roughly 20 per cent higher than the 87.5 grams assigned to fuel from conventional crude oil. A bill containing a fuel-quality directive (FQD) targeting oil sands imports is due to be presented to the European Parliament for a vote later this year.
It’s a largely symbolic gesture, as according to Canada’s National Energy Board, 98.5 percent of Canada’s first quarter 2011 oil sands exports went to the United States.
But it’s the principle of the thing, and Ottawa is now threatening to retaliate in the area of Canadian-EU bilateral trade, a not insignificant concern, as last year the EU imported about $26.8 billion of Canadian goods, while Canada took Full article at: Canadian Oil Sands – A Good Investment? Not in Europe, Apparently
Don’t worry. The Asians will buy everything they can produce.
—Don’t worry. The Asians will buy everything they can produce.—
That’s what I was thinking. The eurocrats can call it “dirty canadian honey” for all I care. It’s just a label. What sells is the actual measurable quality.
China already has investments in the Canadian petroleum industry. Just as it has in the USA (a $2 billion investment in the Eagle Ford oil shale region in Texas). Asia will stick with the Americas — and the EUR be damned.
A resource worth tens of trillions of dollars, if not more... certainly worth substantial research investment dollars... and yet we fritter away countless billions on solar and batteries, which have been researched for many decades. I hope some enterprising folks make a trillion dollars for figuring out how to extract sufficient amounts of usable oil in a cost-effective manner... and make Canada into the new global leader. Let the Middle East rot.
Let them freeze in the dark.
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