Approves Asia Supply Route, Ignores US Route
H/T Eric Worrall and Breitbart – Obama’s inability to make a decision on Keystone has finally yielded a result – Canada has made the decision for him.
Breitbart reports Canada has just approved the Enbridge Northern Gateway Project – a major pipeline to ship Canadian oil to Asia.
The Canadian oil will still be burnt – in Asia, instead of America.
All the jobs and energy security which Canadian oil could have delivered to America, will instead be delivered to Asia.
Rather than purchasing crude from a friendly and allied neighbor, the United States will most likely need to continue its reliance upon hostile sources like Venezuela. Energy analysts had hoped that construction of Keystone could have replaced almost half of the current U.S. daily crude purchases from that volatile, anti-American dictatorship, depriving Venezuela of the resources it relies upon to stay in power and fund its Cuban allies.
You can’t say Canada didn’t give America a chance – they waited years for the American administration to come to their senses. But in the end, they couldn’t wait any longer, and have put the interests of Canadians first.
Below is a helpful timeline of Keystone events, courtesy of Al Jazeera.
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There is no guarantee that the Northern Gateway pipeline will be built. it has gained approval with conditions from the Canadian Federal government. However the pipeline takes oil from Alberta to a port in British Columbia. The BC government has not yet given its approval and is demanding much higher compensation than Alberta wants to give. as well, there is a legal obligation to “consult” with the First Nations (aboriginals) along teh path. The duty to consult came from a Supreme Court ruling but as yet no one knows just what the duty to consult really means. So any decision on this is, with any sense of reality, going back to the courts for litigation.
Mr. Watts,
I am a big fan but you need to proceed carefully with this. While the Canadian government recently approved the Northern Gateway pipeline, I see no reports or evidence that TransCanada has abandoned its plan to complete construction of the Keystone XL pipeline.
http://transcanada.com/
http://search1.bloomberg.com/search/?content_type=all&page=1&q=transcanada%20keystone%20xl
Respectfully yours,
JWG
Part of the NAFTA agreement is that Canada is compelled to “share” its oil and other resources with the US. So in the case of an oil shortage, Canada is compelled to ship oil to the US.
I’ve hear many right and left wing Americans whine about NAFTA. Actually it is a pretty good deal for the US. Canada got access to US markets by becoming absolutely economically dependent on it.
The reality of the Keystone pipelines is that it is connecting stranded oil in the US with world markets. Previously teh price for North American oil was lower than the world Brent price because it was difficult to for North American oil to be shipped to world markets. With Keystone that problem is solved and the North American price will converge with the world price. That is why the southern portion of Keystone has been approved.
The problem with the northern portion of Keystone is that it will bring in Canadian oil to compete with US oil in US markets. That is the real source of the opposition to it.
TAG
Part of the NAFTA agreement is that Canada is compelled to “share” its oil and other resources with the US. So in the case of an oil shortage, Canada is compelled to ship oil to the US.
I’ve hear many right and left wing Americans whine about NAFTA. Actually it is a pretty good deal for the US. Canada got access to US markets by becoming absolutely economically dependent on it.
If exporting oil to China rises in importance, NAFTA may seem like less of a priority. Don’t forget, Canada pulled out of Kyoto when Kyoto became inconvenient – when Kyoto got in the way of exploiting the tar sands. If China becomes the more important trading partner, then agreements with America may be set aside.
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2011/12/12/kyoto-in-the-past-for-canada/
The Keystone pipeline was NOT for US consumption. It was to take oil to the Gulf which is still polluted from the offshore explosion a few years ago…refine the oil and then ship the contents to Europe! This is all part of the ‘isolate Russia’ scam.
And the price of gasoline at the pumps at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave remain at 0.00 and 00/10!
I think so too.
No, because both Venezuelan & Canadian tar sands oil are “heavy” (viscous) crude that only the refineries in Louisiana can handle. It helps that they’re in a hot climate, too.
I doubt the Enbridge pipeline to the west coast will ever be built. If it is completed, it will be under another company’s project. Keystone will probably be done under another President. The most sensible pipeline project for Canada is Energy East. Feed light oil to Canadian refineries and some heavy oil for export from the east coast.
Hey, wake up. Hussain Obama is not working for the Americans, he is working for the East. Only a Sunni would bow before the Sunni King.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=CseUglupmZk
Why do you think Hussain Obama wants to arm the Sunni rebels with $500 million of US arms? — arms that will trickle into the hands of the Sunni ISIS rebels.
R
Yeah, but first, we have to reverse the years of bribes paid to “First Nations” groups along the proposed pipeline route, by the green money laundering machine, AKA Greenpeace, Suzuki, Moore, Hewlett, Packard, Tides et al.
The really bad thing about this decision, is that Hussain Obama has reduced American energy security by a large margin. If there is a war in the Middle East (likely) or people’s revolt in the north of S America (possible), you need as many energy routes and sources as possible, to keep the lights on.
What Hussain Obama has ensured, is that when ISIS moves into southern Iraq and then Iran, and the whole region goes up in flames, that there will be petrol rationing and economic stagnation across the entire USA.
R
I also remember the dramatic cessation of anti-logging activity by the well-organized rowdy left, when Canada’s McMillan Bloedel forestry company was acquired by Weyerhauser, from the USA. Instantly, they all went home. Once the USA get their guaranteed access to Canadian supply, the Asian supply route will be dead.
PS: Probably I should have said that that “only the refineries in Louisiana can handle ECONOMICALLY.”
Mike McMillan says:
June 29, 2014 at 12:21 am
You take a guy from Indonesia with no experience, no accomplishments, and average intelligence and put him in the White House, then you expect leadership?
Time to give Biden a chance.
Whoa! Not so fast.
Remember, it was the “guy from Indonesia with no experience, no accomplishments, and average intelligence” who choose Biden for the job.
No surprises that the US currently has 41 lawyers graduating per 1 engineer!
A society totally gridlocked & obsessed by legal red tape and obstruction.
A society that has almost totally forgotten its roots and what once made it great.
China can’t wait to fill your shoes .Greece welcomes you to the club.
I think some Americans are being seriously complacent about what the tar sands means to Canada.
Regarding difficulties building the Enbridge Gateway Project, as CodeTech said, there are 3.5 to 4 trillion barrels of oil on the table. At $100 / barrel, thats around $350,000,000,000,000 – $400,000,000,000,000 worth of oil.
Even if the profit per barrel is only $10, thats still a minimum of $35,000,000,000,000 on the table.
If you had to pay $1 billion dollars each to 1000 people who got in the way of the project, to convince them withdraw their objections, that would still leave $34,000,000,000,000 (at the $10 / barrel profit margin – more if the profit margin is higher).
If all the profit (at $10 / barrel) from the tar sands was evenly distributed, amongst each of the 35 million people who live in Canada, thats just under one million dollars, for each and every Canadian – so several million dollars for a household with kids.
Nobody is going to prevent Enbridge from being built, if Canada is determined to build it.
As for Canada’s relationship with the USA – I think there is a lot of complacency on America’s part. Canada is feeling deeply disappointed, and probably offended, at America standing in the way of the greatest windfall they’ve ever had the opportunity to land. Harper said so – they have waited years, when they could have been building hospitals, schools, pensions, Swiss bank accounts, whatever.
If China offers every Canadian alive today the opportunity to be a millionaire, why should they give a f*ck what America wants?
I’m sure that was his plan the whole time. Stall, make Canada decide and they look like the bad guy. Can’t blame Canada one bit. They have a resource they want to sell. Somebody will buy it.
Mac the Knife says:
June 28, 2014 at 11:44 pm
“Think of it as ‘wealth redistribution’, the Obama way…..”
——————–
I think of it as, ….. the Obama way … for the Muslim Islamic fanatics to defeat and destroy the Western world infidels without “firing a shot”.
===========
TBear says:
June 29, 2014 at 3:31 am
“Unbelievable stupidity of Obama. Is he really intent on destroying the USA?”
———————-
“Yes”, he is.
His claim to “Fundamentally change America” is his one (1) and only pre-Election promise that he is intent on and committed to insuring that it happens.
Now the question becomes : will the bilionaire moron who promised the Dems $100M if the Keystone was not built now pay up? Regardless, he, along with those he bribed (the Dem party) are going to catch flack from both sides. Let’s see what the Dems who have to stand for re- election do – will they try to sell this turn of events as a good thing or turn on Obama? Or perhaps somehow blame the Canadians? Decisions, decisions. My guess, Obama will continue his Pollyanna technique and his fellow Dems will have to back him up.
Feckless. Unfaithful. Disloyal. Deceitful. Irresolute. Immature. Extremist. Failure. Self-Absorbed. Corrupt. Out of touch. So many ways to describe our President.
King Abdullah will be so proud. Obama finally achieves what he promised, when bowing to him.
I’d strongly question the interpretation of this news.
First, there is ample supply potential in Alberta to fill both a pipeline to the west coast and another pipeline south across the USA. They’re also talking about a pipeline east across Canada to the Atlantic coast. It’s not an either-or issue. All of these pipelines could potentially be built and filled with oil.
Second, Keystone XL is not all about supplying the USA with more crude oil. It’s at least partly about finding another export route for Canadian crude oil via the US gulf coast ports. US crude generally can’t be legally exported (other than within NAFTA), but Canadian crude can.
Third, the USA is not short of crude oil at the moment. In the areas that would be reached by Keystone XL, there is the opposite problem. A huge glut of crude has depressed prices at the key Cushing OK market since 2010. After massive efforts to find ways to transport the excess to somewhere it can be refined, by reversing existing pipelines, converting gas pipelines to oil pipelines, building new pipelines and putting oil on rail, the industry has succeeded in moving some of the glut away from the midcontinent and down to the Gulf Coast. But even there, refiners are struggling to use it all, and there is serious speculation in the international trading community that the USA may start to allow some exports of unrefined material.
The USA is now making more gasoline than it can consume itself, and has become a net exporter in the past few years – an astonishing turn around for European refiners who have seen the USA as a reliable buyer of their excess production for decades. So even if Canada’s crude does head to China, it won’t make a jot of difference to the US supply of gasoline, or the price at the pumps.
Once again, they’re Oil Sands.
The oil will move by train.
“Shipments of oil by rail from Western Canada are expected to more than triple in the next two years, as the sector heads into a severe shortage of pipeline capacity by next year, according to a new forecast by the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers.
Oil transportation by rail is expected to jump to about 700,000 barrels per day by 2016 from 200,000 bpd in late 2013”
http://business.financialpost.com/2014/06/09/canadas-oil-industry-cuts-long-term-production-growth-forecast-to-4-8m-bpd/?__lsa=ce2a-e189