President Barack Obama's decision yesterday to reject a permit for TransCanada Corp.'s Keystone XL oil pipeline may prompt Canada to turn to China for oil exports.Prime Minister Stephen Harper, in a telephone call yesterday, told Obama "Canada will continue to work to diversify its energy exports," according to details provided by Harper's office. Canadian Natural Resource Minister Joe Oliver said relying less on the U.S. would help strengthen the country's "financial security."
The "decision by the Obama administration underlines the importance of diversifying and expanding our markets, including the growing Asian market," Oliver told reporters in Ottawa.
Currently, 99 percent of Canada's crude exports go to the U.S., a figure that Harper wants to reduce in his bid to make Canada a "superpower" in global energy markets.
Canada accounts for more than 90 percent of all proven reserves outside the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, according to data compiled in the BP Statistical Review of World Energy. Most of Canada's crude is produced from oil-sands deposits in the landlocked province of Alberta, where output is expected to double over the next eight years, according to the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers.
"I am sure that if the oil sands production is not used in the United States, they will be used in other countries," Fatih Birol, chief economist at the International Energy Agency, said in an interview before a speech at Imperial College in London today.
Harper "expressed his profound disappointment with the news," according to the statement, which added that Obama told Harper the rejection was not based on the project's merit and that the company is free to re-apply.
Canada this month began hearings on a proposed pipeline by Enbridge Inc. to move crude from Alberta's oil sands to British Columbia's coast, where it could be shipped to Asian markets.
Environmentalists and Canadian opposition lawmakers welcomed the Obama administration's decision. Megan Leslie, a lawmaker for the opposition New Democratic Party, said the Keystone pipeline project was harmful to Canada's energy security. "What I'm opposed to is continuing the unchecked expansion of the oil sands," Leslie said by telephone.
| What she's opposed to is any expansion. Indeed, any use. There's all that green energy and tens of millions of jobs to be had. It just needs some government loans to kickstart the whole process... |
"We have to have processes in Canada that come to a decision in a reasonable amount of time, and processes that cannot be hijacked," Harper said at a press conference Jan. 6 in Edmonton.
| Hijacked by American greenies, Soros and other nefarious types, he means... |
Canadian policy makers said they remain optimistic TransCanada will eventually be able to proceed. Alberta Premier Alison Redford said in a press conference in Edmonton that it is still "entirely possible" the pipeline will be built and said it was good news that TransCanada planned to apply again.
| Wait until late January, 2013, and for either President Romney or President Gingrich to look at the plan. Shouldn't take more than a day or so... |
"We strongly believe that Keystone's in the best interests of both countries," he said. "We'll continue to be an active supporter of the project."