U.S. gives go ahead for oil exports as Canada wavers on pipelines,
原始发布日期： 2015-12-19 发布者：中和字变大 字变小
 Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Ky. gestures during an interview with The Associated Press, Wednesday, Dec. 16, 2015, in his office on Capitol Hill in Washington. J. Scott Applewhite / AP Congress passed an omnibus US$1.1-trillion spending bill Friday that included the lifting of a 40-year-old ban on crude oil exports that goes back to the initial OPEC crisis in the 1970s and is a testament to the remarkable reversal of fortune in recent years for North America’s once-moribund oil industry. The decision to permit exports of unrefined crude is “particularly important at a time when our industry is experiencing a period of extreme volatility and uncertainty,” ConocoPhillips CEO Ryan Lance said in a statement. Concern over security of supply has become a thing of the past in this period of abundant oil after the advances in oilsands technology and, especially, hydraulic fracturing that led to development of previously untapped oil reservoirs. Record volumes of oil production in Canada and resurgent U.S. supply is looking for new markets worldwide even as prices plummet. American oil companies argued that lifting the ban actually increases U.S. energy security by removing the artificial cap on production and supporting the current renaissance in oilfield innovation. It’s also forecast to reduce the discount on North American crude from the global benchmarks. Lifting the crude export ban — with relatively little fanfare — puts the U.S. well ahead of Canada in getting surplus barrels to overseas markets as Canadians debate pipeline proposals to the east and west coasts. Putting shovels in the ground to build the infrastructure to transport 2.2 million barrels a day of oil is far more of challenge than a stroke of a pen by lawmakers. As the U.S. was enacting the historic policy shift this week, north of the border Kinder Morgan Canada was making final arguments at the National Energy Board for expansion of its Trans Mountain oil pipeline from Alberta to suburban Vancouver and TransCanada Corp. announced 700 changes to the proposed route for its Energy East pipeline to Saint John, N.B. “The action on the ground starts now,” Andrea Harden-Donahue of the Council of Canadians warned after TransCanada’s announcement. Another major Canadian pipeline — Enbridge’s Northern Gateway to Kitimat, B.C. — is stalled, and Obama recently quashed Keystone XL that would’ve moved oilsands crude to the U.S. Gulf Coast. It raises the question: If it’s okay for Canada’s NAFTA partner to export crude, why should Canada self impose a de facto ban on additional oil exports? “More jobs, more opportunity and more economic growth,” is how Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell characterized the U.S. bill at a time when Canada’s oil-producing regions are desperate for all three. The American public appears to have fewer concerns about pipelines than Canadians as a poll by Pew Research Center in October indicated 48 per cent of Canadians opposed Keystone XL versus 39 per cent of U.S respondents. Oil opponents in Canada and the United States said any additional exports would contradict the commitments President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made at the just-completed UN climate change summit in Paris to move the world away from fossil fuels and undermine the transition to a greener economy. But days later, the U.S. move potentially unleashes a flood of shale oil onto global markets. The worldwide oil glut has seen West Texas Intermediate crude plunge from US$107 a barrel in June 2014 to hit a seven-year low of $34.39 a barrel Friday as producers battle for markets globally. It’s not simply the U.S. pushing for more market share. There’s no voluntary scaling back of production or exports expected from governments of major producers including Saudi Arabia, Iran or Russia. Canada has recommitted to doing its part to address climate change under politicians like Trudeau and Alberta Premier Rachel Notley but it risks going it alone on that path — to the detriment of the already ailing economy — even as the world’s other big producers show little interest in curbing their oil industries for the global good. Stephen Ewart is a Calgary Herald columnist. sewart@calgaryherald.com twitter.com/stephen_ewart Calgary Herald |