Essay by Eric Worrall
The Trudeau government is trying to convince everyone that tar sands oil can be a climate friendly fuel.
Record oil exports test Trudeau’s climate-change ambitions
4TH MAY 2022
BY: BLOOMBERGCanada is becoming more reliant on the fossil-fuel sector, even as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau seeks to strengthen the country’s policies on climate change.
Oil, natural gas, coal and refined petroleum exports hit a one-month record of C$17.4-billion ($13.6-billion) in March, according to data released Wednesday by Statistics Canada. Shipments totaled about C$150-billion over the past 12 months — also a record.
As a share of total merchandise exports, the fossil-fuel industry represented 27.4% of shipments in March — matching the all-time high set under former Prime Minister Stephen Harper in 2014.
…
“Canada has decided through its policy actions that an aggressive decarbonization strategy is a better route to net zero than conceding the market to dirtier suppliers of oil and gas,” said Ed Greenspon, CEO of the Public Policy Forum, an Ottawa-based think tank that argued against an accelerated phaseout in a March report. “As an exporter, this is good news for the Canadian economy. As a reliable exporter, it is good news for the world economy.”
The Trudeau government’s plan to meet its climate targets relies on a 42% cut in emissions from the oil and gas sector over the next eight years. It leans heavily on technical improvements — such as carbon capture — while still allowing for barrels to be pumped, to the chagrin of environmentalists.
…
Read more: https://www.miningweekly.com/article/record-oil-exports-test-trudeaus-climate-change-ambitions-2022-05-04/rep_id:3650
I can’t help thinking this wasn’t the kind of green government Trudeau voters were hoping for at the last election. But as Trudeau once said, “No country would find 173 billion barrels of oil in the ground and leave them there”.
Yeah! Boo!
What else would one expect Trudeau to do? Virtue signalling at someone else’s expense?
Does he still have truckers Covid?
Don’t believe for one second that feckless team Trudeau is responsible for the production increase. Oil companies in Western Canada did it. This despite the feds with their “no more pipelines” act, caps on emissions, increased carbon taxes, cabinet of WEF flunkies, finance minister with a journalism degree who gave away half of Canada’s dairy, auto and aircraft manufacturing industries to the US in the last trade deal, numerically incompetent Guilbeault as Minister of Environment harping on 42% CO2 reductions by primary industry over the next 7 1/2 years…but they are going to learn soon (actually they know already, just haven’t been able to tell their woke urban gullible voter base in hopes of winning another election) that the Canadian economy now runs on Petro, Ag, Lumber, Potash and Uranium dollars of Western Canada, and the Iron and nickel mines and manufacturing of Eastern Canada are now bit players in the real economy.
As well, the fossil fuel industry, 90% located on the CDN prairies for the last 60 yrs has subsidized across the country the Federal Govt’s: health social equalization program, capital projects, grants
Being a hypocrite doesn’t bother them at all when money is involved. Reality can be ignored but not so much for money.
Sophistry at its finest.
Canada is cleaning up the biggest oil spill that the world has ever seen, with all those oil sands sitting on the surface like that.
That’s how his majesty should sell it to the greenies.
The amazing thing is that all that oil in the ground was found in barrels!
Why are you using the term “tar sands”? That is a disparaging term used by climate change zealots to paint the oil sands in the most unflattering light possible.
Sorry, I’ll try to remember in future.
Very good Eric! How dare you!
I worked summers at Syncrude when I was in university. That stuff is very tarry. And we called it tarsand even back then in the mid-70s.
but similar to global warming is now climate change
Its tar like but look up what tar actually is. The oil sands are bitumen.
What is the correct term?
Cam used oil sands- maybe that’s it. (?)
Tar comes from tree sap
Oil sands, please
We have about 1000 years worth
Too bad he cannot convince the baked potato in the White House.
There’s a good moniker for LGB – “Mr. Potato Head.”
Now I’m going to struggle not to hear anything he says (which would only be if I don’t hold the channel changer) in the voice of Don Rickles.
“Where’s my mustache?”
POTATUS
I like the endearing title some wag created for JoBo: “Resident of the United States” ROTUS.
I always thought that was CNN’s Brian Stelter. That would
make him a cannibal when he eats French fries! 😮
It’s a Two Bob each way job.
First you run to the Green end, utter a few nice words to them.
Then you run to the other end, & think of how mice the Treasury will look with all those taxes coming in.
It’s a hard job being a Politician these days.
Michael VK5ELL
It will give the mice in the treasury something to chew on.
I reckon that quip that Trudeau made about leaving oil in the ground was his smart-arse attempt at a put-down of oil proponents.
He certainly hasn’t pushed the completion of the pipelines with any enthusiasm.
He has got a reputation as someone who embraces “seeming” to do things.
I wonder how many free lunches people in Trudeau’s government are collecting, in exchange for empty promises to resolve these issues?
Well if they just sit back and do nothing while looking as if they are concerned and saying the right woke mantra then they should coin it in from both sides – the oil and gas industry for doing nothing and the green blob for saying they’re doing something without actually delivering. It’s a win-win situation, a politicians wet dream.
Canadian sand oil is expensive to extract. More than anything it is the current high price of oil ($105-107) that is motivating the increase in supply of Canadian oil for export.
Per— https://yaleclimateconnections.org/2021/03/canadas-oil-sands-industry-is-taking-a-big-hit/
In 2014, the cost to produce oil sands crude was more than $60 per barrel (expressed in WTI terms), but improvements and efficiencies have brought costs down to $46 to $53 per barrel, according to one estimate, and the mid $40s, by 5, 2021
At $105 oil will start leaking into the supply market putting pressure on the Saudi Prince to increase supply to slow the high cost producer to make some windfall dough before he loses the opportunity.
What a difference a year makes! With the Line 3 pipeline capacity increase last year and $100 oil, Canadian oil companies are now some of the most profitable in the world.
“CNRL now fourth most valuable publicly traded oil and gas producer on the continent.
Soaring energy prices helped the Calgary-based company post net earnings of $3.1 billion, or $2.63 per share, for the first three months of the year, compared to $1.38 billion, or $1.16 per share, in the previous year.”
https://www.thecragandcanyon.ca/commodities/energy/oil-gas/canadian-natural-resources-profit-more-than-doubles-on-surging-oil-prices
Trouble is, the companies aren’t going to reinvest much of the profits back into the business, because the political climate is so toxic. Can’t blame them.
The politics are a smoke screen…. the demand will continue to grow between the episodes of media generated crisis. Time for put LNG ports in the Black Sea is now and then defend them with in insurmountable might…. and build pipe lines into central Asia and all throughout Europe. Let Poopin develop his own domestic demand for Gazprom products…. it’s about time right!
Get Brazil and others into the supply game and Russia becomes Venezuela.
I first read about Alberta’s oil land deposit in 1974 during the first OPEC raid on global/US oil supply. I am happy to see Canadian oil is now profitable and flowing freely. I live in Pennsylvania… we have ton of shale gas. What we need infrastructure and free and open hydrocarbon fuel markets. If one nation is going to use force or partition geographic markets, then they should get blasted.
Jeff I think you are quoting numbers for an in-situ project. I was working at CNRL when we where planning Horizon and it was economical at $26 to 28 WTI oil.
Trying to convince everyone that oil sands are climate friendly? Trudeau is doing nothing of the sort. He and his government are actively engaged in destroying Canada’s resource rich (oil & gas) economy, and have a legacy of deceit and hatred for Western Canada resource extraction. His policies and ministers are beholden to Trudeau and his green dream. He has placed an anti oil and gas activist Steven Guilbeault as his environment & climate change minister. High exports and revenues are only due to business and industry doing what the marketplace demands despite the governments efforts to ruin them. Of course Trudeau accepts all the taxation and royalties from the industry to further fund his quest of a “just transition” to climate nirvana.
That’s pure Atlas Shrugged IMO. The bad guys in Atlas Shrugged desperately needed Hank Rearden’s productivity and tax revenue, but they still sought to outdo each other, to hurt him and his business with their hatred and greed. Seems familiar?
I prefer Jane’s oil to Tar Sand’s.
and of course you remember where to pick up your coat?
I can’t help but laugh at the statement:
“Canada has decided through its policy actions that an aggressive decarbonization strategy is a better route to net zero than conceding the market to dirtier suppliers of oil and gas,” said Ed Greenspon”
What a convoluted rationalization. These morons are only trying to convince the dimmest of wits, probably themselves included, that they are doing something altruistic.
Yeah, saw that. What a joke.
Reality is they have no idea what they are doing, the open their mouths and say things they feel make them sound earnest and virtuous, none of which means anything.
So we will continue to increase oil and gas exports (more emissions), increase immigration (more emissions) but torture us with carbon tax and endless inane stupidity.
A Green blight delayed, perhaps. That said, black crude, in context, is, in fact, green and nutritious, a reliable source of low mass to energy density and diverse other applications for modern and striving societies. CO2 for a green and greening world. Let’s do our, albeit minority, part to help Her.
He needs to pressure Biden to restart the Keystone XL pipeline.
The standard meme for 24/7 solar with us deniers is to drill/mine & export. Since WWII, the West
has spent a lot of $$$ defending & placating the ME because of their oil, which will eventually run
out. The key to winning wars is tactics & logistics. If the US & Canada are attacked, having NRG @
home’s vital. My question: when does this factor become a consideration? For example, most of
Alaskan crude- a bit different “blend”- is exported to Japan with some going to the PNW. Most/all
the Keystone NRG will be exported. So having more NRG w/Keystone & Alaska doesn’t reduce NRG
costs in the US. (Ousting Brandon IS the best sln.) Most of the NRG jobs are in the beginning
phases of operations with only maintenance then needed. So we always have to find new sources
to export which is what Saudi’s doing.
Companies do need enough business through the years to keep the doors open. Since NRG keeps,
doing too much business today is stealing business from tomorrow. Eventually, we will run out of
24/7 solar & hopefully thorium/fusion/whatever will be there to replace it. We don’t want to put
future generations in the situation Europe’s in right now especially since their very survival may be
@ stake. I don’t have any firm position on it myself as it may be a bit complex & I may not have all
the facts & ideas concerning all the variables involved.
He could be planning to export all this oil, gas and coal to St. Pierre and Miquelon where new fossil power plants will be built. Its no too far to run undersea cables to Prince Edward Island and thence to the mainland. The emissions will of course be French, not Canadian. Brilliant!
This site is great and we should all support it. This is what was rejected from Yahoo and I am including my opinion comment:
Your comment on U.S. Shale’s Cash Bonanza Is About to Wipe Out $300 Billion Loss has been rejected as it contains content that is in breach of our community guidelines.
Shareholders really means Blackrock. Brian Deese is setting economic policy in the Whitehouse. I am sure it is just a coincidence that higher oil and NG prices benefit both Blackrock’s alternative energy holdings and its oil and gas holdings.
Thank you Eric Worrall for this article.
Justin Trudeau and his Cabinet are slaves of the World Economic Forum (WEF). Trudeau, the leftist Greens and the WEF are 100% hostile to the Alberta oil sands and are doing everything they can to sabotage the oil sands industry, which (paradoxically) continues to be the mainstay of the Canadian economy.
A further paradox is there is no real global warming crisis, and green energy will never adequately replace fossil fuels – as we correctly published in 2002. Nobody, not even Justin Trudeau, the WEF and the greens can be this stupid for this long – their intent is to destroy the economy and rule like dictators, looking down at all the poor peasants – you and your family.
I just published some details on the oil sands here, here and here.
Canada is still the fourth largest oil producer in the world, and the largest foreign energy supplier to the USA. ~80% of that oil is from Alberta, and most of that is from the oil sands.
The large surface mining projects produce a 9 degree heavy sour bitumen (looks like road tar) that is washed from the oil sand and upgraded to a 32 degree light sweet bottomless crude that gets a premium price at refineries because it yields 100% high-valued products – gasoline, diesel, jet and fuel oil with no heavy resids.
When I was there, Syncrude had the largest mining equipment, processing equipment (extraction plant, upgrader – cokers, hydroprocessor, hydrotreaters, hydrogen plants) and cogen plant in the world, and held records for operating them reliably and efficiently.
The deeper in-situ Athabasca oil sands projects use SAGD steam technology to extract raw bitumen from the reservoir and usually dilute it and pipeline it to USA refineries for upgrading, where it displaces unreliable Venezuela crude. Some in-situ bitumen is upgraded in Alberta.
I chaired the Mining Committee, Technical Committee and the SCO Quality Task Force at Syncrude Canada, then the world’s largest oil sands project. I initiated the Fiscal Terms Task Force and was also a member of the Shippers Committee and the Management Committee, to whom the President of Syncrude reports.
Is there anything you haven’t done or predicted?
Fair suck of the sav Charles – Alan likes to blow his trumpet, but he has contributed to the pool of practical experience and knowledge.
I’d rather read Alan’s comments than know-nothing pontificators like Griff, Izaak and Simon to name but 3.
Well, um, thanks, I think, um…
Being put in a list with Griff et al makes me feel so special. 🙂
Yes Charles, I haven’t been able to get this fixed. 🙂
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2022/04/25/my-new-book-soaring-on-amazon-get-your-copy-now/#comment-3510698
Hello Moderator,
I am requesting your help.
Whenever I post, I record my website in the space below as:
https://energy-experts-international.com/
However, when my name is clicked it goes to this non-existent site:
http://www.oilsandsexpert.com
Can you kindly fix this problem and advise?
Thank you, Allan
Post script:
Also Charles, I have terrible judgment in woman. I pick model-beautiful women and only later find out that they are sociopaths. I understand Amber Heard is available.
🙂
________________________
SCIENTIFIC COMPETENCE – THE ABILITY TO CORRECTLY PREDICT
October 20, 2021. Update May 4, 2022
https://correctpredictions.ca/
“The ability to correctly predict is the best objective measure of scientific and technical competence.”
Sorry you are continuing to experience the problem.
I suggest you clear your browser cache, history, cookies, upgrade your browser, your OS, perhaps install more RAM, and a complete restore from before you began to experience the problem.
Thank you Charles. Will try.
The problem might be the backslash at the end. It has frequently been a problem I have run into on some systems.
As I understand it, Amber is quite busy but should be available soon.👱♀️
Thank you Brad.
Trying https://energy-experts-international.com (w/o backslash)
No – but thx anyway. My computer guy says the problem is not in my machine. We’ll see.
The problem may be in your original user profile with WUWT. If you can change that profile then that should fix it.
Seriously Charles, my point is not that my/our correct predictions on Climate and Covid were so difficult – the point is some of them were so EASY!
The alleged Global Warming (CAGW aka Climate) crisis is supported by scoundrels and imbeciles. It is blatantly false, a ~50-year-old scam.
It is obvious that no rational individual or group could be this wrong for this long – the leaders of the Climate scam have known they were lying since Day 1; the imbeciles believe them.
CORRECT CLIMATE AND ENERGY PREDICTIONS FROM 2002
We published in 2002:
1. “Climate science does not support the theory of catastrophic human-made global warming – the alleged warming crisis does not exist.”
This is Geology 101. Earth has been much warmer and colder in the past, and CO2 was NOT the driver. There is much more… EASY!
2. “The ultimate agenda of pro-Kyoto advocates is to eliminate fossil fuels, but this would result in a catastrophic shortfall in global energy supply – the wasteful, inefficient energy solutions proposed by Kyoto advocates simply cannot replace fossil fuels.”
This is basic Engineering – Intermittency is a fatal flaw of wind and solar power, and grid-scale storage is impractical. EASY!
I published on September 1, 2002:
3. “If [as we believe] solar activity is the main driver of surface temperature rather than CO2, we should begin the next cooling period by 2020 to 2030.”
This was more difficult, but I had help – I consulted with Dr Tim Patterson, veteran Paleoclimatologist, Carleton U, Ottawa.
I updated my global cooling prediction in 2013:
3a. “I suggest global cooling starts by 2020 or sooner. Bundle up.”
The cold end of SC23 circa 2008 provided the model for the end of weaker SC24 circa 2020. MEDIUM-EASY.
__________________
Some of my correct Covid-19 predictions were more difficult, but not that much. The key was to find quality data buried in the swamp of false information, and to spot the same elitist rats pushing false-crisis propaganda – Lenin tactics similar to the CAGW scam.
https://correctpredictions.ca/
“…while still allowing for barrels to be pumped, to the chagrin of environmentalists.”
Somebody should tell the environmentalists that it was the oil & gas sector that saved the whales.
I once considered writing a mockery of green thinking, “Whales, the ultimate biofuel”, but Anthony talked me out of it, was concerned some of the dumber greens would take my parody literally.
Eric, you could headline your article with Spangled Drongo’s suggestion –
“Whale Oil Beef Hooked!”
On his way to turn Canada into Nuevo Venezuela, Trudeau may soon be nationalizing the Canadian oil industry. If so, those snide rumors about Castro’s changeling will begin to become more believable.
His dad tried with his National Energy Program and PetroCanada
“Trudeau once said, “No country would find 173 billion barrels of oil in the ground and leave them there”.”
Trudeau hasn’t met the Biden regime, has he?
“I can’t help thinking this wasn’t the kind of green government Trudeau voters were hoping for at the last election.”
There wasnt much hoping for his government at all. He cobbled together a coalition minority gov that’s even farther left with the socialist NDP which has been pushed off its ideological pinnings by an ever leftward shift of the ‘Liberals’. The coalition has outsourced its constituency to Europe/UN and nevermind the poor. Indeed the idea seems to be to impoverish everybody but the Billionaires on government dole. Like with Trump, Conservatives seem to be the saviors of the poor!
There is, and has been, a strange deep envy of Europe as our betters in Canada, Australia and New Zealand (to a degree, also in USA where the Royal Family are A List celebrities more so than in Canada at least). I never could understand this. The Commonwealth was built by the brain and free spirit drain of adventurous, creative productive people looking for something better for themselves. I judge India to be the defacto head of the British Commonwealth.
“I can’t help thinking this wasn’t the kind of green government Trudeau voters were hoping for at the last election. But as Trudeau once said, “No country would find 173 billion barrels of oil in the ground and leave them there”. The US can, and does. Instead, Biden sells our reserves!
Ahh well the most important thing with net zero and climate changing is to control the message and stuff the outcomes-
Labor wants to ‘lock in the funding’ for the ABC: Elsworth (msn.com)
It’s all about seeming and grifting with the big Green blob.
Trudeau would love to turn Canada into his fiefdom Petro-oligarchy, like the one Putin has and rules with an iron fist against politcal opponents and smaller neighbors that displease him.
all the while driving private sector canadians into poverty with higher energy costs via carbon taxes and the clean fuel act. this is socialism at it’s worst. the great reset in you face.
all of canada’s oil is exported to the us.
The problem in Canada is that the country is now ruled by an ideologically-driven cult determined to destroy everything they possibly can related to fossil fuel production, regardless of what it takes. The rot is demonstrated by a response Chrystia Freeland, the Deputy Prime Minister of Canada and the Minister of Finance, gave to a question by CBC’s Chris Hall on his weekly Saturday morning program “The House” the week following her budget.
To Hall’s question of why the creation of The Canada Growth Fund and the Innovation Agency . . . “is a government priority rather than being left to the private sector,” Freeland replied:
“. . . the reality is we need to move really, really fast. And we need to move fast for two reasons. The first one is we know we need to bring our emissions down really, really sharply by 2030 and by 2050 in order to save the planet (my emphasis). The second reason we need to move fast on the Green Transition is the rest of the world is moving too, and if Canada you know, if we don’t get our skates on then we are going to be left behind in this powerful economic transformation.” (direct transcript from “The House” – Sat. April 9, 2020)
Of course there was no challenge to what would, under more rational conditions, be labelled “false” and “untrue.” “Save the planet” indeed. What hubris!
The power elites who spout such absolute (and ignorant) views unfortunately hold the power to create and enforce policies that wreak havoc on the lives of their countries’ citizens. They have been accurately labelled “China’s useful idiots” (The Global Warming Policy Foundation’s 2020 Briefing 51 by Patricia Adams – The Red and the Green: China’s Useful Idiots.)
Canadians face a dire future having placed individuals such as these in charge. The country is already suffering the consequences of decisions made by ultra-radical ministers – such as Steven Guilbeault (Environment and Climate Change) and Stephen Wilkinson (Natural Resources) – all led by the ultra-woke PM Justin Trudeau who ensures that all the servile lackeys in his caucus “toe the line.”
As soon as I saw the term “tar sands” I knew this article was garbage. There are tar pits in California. No “tar” in Canada. Its sand with oil in it therefore its OIL SANDS in Canada. And yes its clean as the law requires the land to be reclaimed – cleaner than before as there is no oil in the sand or dirt.