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Northern Gateway project welcomed — and called ‘unsafe’

The Northern Gateway oil pipeline for western Canadian ports drew criticism despite support from the regulatory National Energy Board. Barry Robinson, a staff lawyer for advocacy group Ecojustice, said in a statement Thursday the project put the pristine western coastline at risk. "The Northern Gateway pipeline is an unsafe, unsustainable and unnecessary project, and it does not serve the national interest of this country," he said. Canadian pipeline company Enbridge received support from the energy board to build a pipeline designed to send 525,000 barrels of oil per day to ports in British Columbia. The Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers said that, with nearly all of the Canadian oil exports now headed to the United States building Northern Gateway to western Canadian ports was good for energy diversity. "Oil pipeline access to the West Coast will strengthen Canada’s ability to receive maximum value […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Canada approves proposed Northern Gateway pipeline, but with 209 conditions

Canada’s Joint Review Panel has given the go-ahead for the Enbridge-backed 525,000 b/d Northern Gateway pipeline that will open up a much-desired export outlet for land-locked Alberta oil sands crude to Asia, setting 209 conditions, a report released late Thursday said. "The project, if built and operated in compliance with the conditions set out, would be in the public interest," the report stated. The report’s major conditions include the developing of marine mammal protection plan, implementing new offshore terminal safety regulations, preparing a caribou habitat restoration plan, and developing an emergency plan to deal with marine spills. Article continues below… Request a free trial of: Oilgram News Oilgram News Oilgram News brings you fast-breaking global petroleum and gas news on and including: Industry players, upstream and downstream markets, refineries, midstream transportation and financial reports Supply and demand trends, government actions, exploration and technology Daily […]

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Enbridge's Northern Gateway Pipeline Gets Backing

Enbridge Inc. ‘s proposed Northern Gateway project cleared a key hurdle Thursday after a Canadian advisory panel recommended it. The pipeline would connect Alberta’s landlocked oil sands to a Pacific coast port for export primarily to markets in Asia. The decision is expected to spur a final finding in favor of the project by Canada’s federal Cabinet within a mandatory 180-day window, and likely will influence a debate over other proposed pipeline projects that aim to reduce market bottlenecks amid a boom in North […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Enbridge’s Northern Gateway Pipeline Gets Backing

Enbridge Inc. ‘s proposed Northern Gateway project cleared a key hurdle Thursday after a Canadian advisory panel recommended it. The pipeline would connect Alberta’s landlocked oil sands to a Pacific coast port for export primarily to markets in Asia. The decision is expected to spur a final finding in favor of the project by Canada’s federal Cabinet within a mandatory 180-day window, and likely will influence a debate over other proposed pipeline projects that aim to reduce market bottlenecks amid a boom in North […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Canada vows thorough review of Trans Mountain pipeline

Canadian Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver said no stone will be left unturned when reviewing Kinder Morgan ‘s bid to expand its Trans Mountain pipeline. Kinder Morgan announced it filed an application with the National Energy Board, a Canadian regulator, to expand the existing Trans Mountain pipeline. The company said its application included environment risk assessments. "Our government has been clear: we will only allow energy projects to proceed if they are found to be safe for Canadians after an independent, scientific, environmental and regulatory review," Oliver said in a statement Monday. Kinder wants to spend more than $5 billion to twin the existing pipeline from Alberta to British Columbia. The company said the expansion would at least double the corridor’s existing capacity of 300,000 barrels of oil per day. Advocacy groups in British Columbia have expressed concern about the potential environmental threat from […]

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Canada Considers Classifying Crude as High-Risk Good

Canada is considering measures to treat crude oil as a high-risk, dangerous product that would require rail shippers to have government-approved emergency-response plans in place, a government official said Friday. The initiative would be part of a broad package of measures the Canadian government will likely unveil early in 2014 to boost rail safety, the official said. The transport of oil by rail has been under heightened scrutiny since last July, when the derailment of a train in Lac-Mégantic, Quebec, killed 47 people. That train, operated by Montreal, Maine & Atlantic Railway Inc., was carrying crude oil from North Dakota’s Bakken region. Preliminary findings by Canadian transportation-safety regulators suggested the oil carried on those derailed railcars was more flammable than its shippers originally indicated. Investigators also suggested the amount of braking force applied to the train, which was left unattended outside Lac-Mégantic, was insufficient for the grade on which […]

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Canada Makes an Audacious Move on the North Pole

The most ambitious land grab is under way, and the unexpectedly expansionist nation is…Canada! In a bold move, Ottawa plans to make a claim on the North Pole . In a submission to the United Nations, Canada says its nautical border should be extended by around 1.2 million square kilometers, adding an area the size of Alberta and Saskatchewan combined (for those unfamiliar with those fine provinces, that’s about the equivalent of Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, North Dakota and South Dakota all put together.) What’s it all aboot, eh? Well there are riches in them there ice-flows. Possibly as much as one-third of […]

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Canada files to define outer limits of expanded Atlantic continental shelf; preliminary filing on Arctic, targeting North Pole

Canada files to define outer limits of expanded Atlantic continental shelf; preliminary filing on Arctic, targeting North Pole Canada Overview of the outer limits of the expanded Canadian continental shelf in the Atlantic Ocean. Click to enlarge. On 6 December, Canada filed a submission to define the outer limits of its expanded continental shelf area in the Atlantic Ocean with the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf . At the same time, Canada also filed preliminary information concerning the expanded outer limits of its continental shelf in the Arctic Ocean, which could include the North Pole. In a news conference on the submission, Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird said that Canada will indeed […]

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Great Wall of Canadian Energy Keeps Chinese on Outside

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper said developing the world’s third-largest pool of oil reserves is as difficult as building China ’s Great Wall. Chinese companies may find themselves outside looking in. Harper announced a year ago tomorrow that Canada will keep state-owned enterprises from acquiring oil sands businesses — one of the last and biggest steps in an overhaul of foreign-investment review rules that govern takeovers of Canadian companies together worth more than C$1.87 trillion ($1.75 trillion). In addition to limits on state-owned investors, Harper has also blocked takeovers on national security grounds and concerns over the loss of strategic resources such as potash. The message for investors is Canada will accept less foreign capital and slower development to ensure resources are kept under some Canadian control, even at the expense of lower company valuations. Harper’s policy is “constructive nationalism,” said Marcel Coutu, chief executive officer of Canadian Oil […]

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Canadian forecast assumes heavy oil will be transported

Canadian government analysts identified transportation as a major export uncertainty in the National Energy Board’s latest long-term supply and demand projections, but expect market forces to resolve the question, particularly for heavy oil , one of them told a Washington audience. “We don’t make specific assumptions about how it will be transported, although we see it moving by rail now to pipeline terminals,” said Abra Bhargava, who leads the Energy Integration Team at NEB’s Calgary headquarters, during a Dec. 6 presentation on the forecast at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. The analysts expect to take a closer look at long-distance rail transportation of diluted bitumen from Alberta’s oil sands in future forecasts, she said, adding, “We strongly believe the markets can function, and transportation will be found.” That assessment differs significantly from many US environmental organizations’ declarations that crude oil production from Alberta’s oil sands won’t grow […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple