As federal and provincial politicians pat themselves on the back for their global warming ‘leadership,’ and pipeline opponents gloat about stalling construction of new Canadian pipelines, tanker-loads of foreign oil are delivered regularly to Eastern Canadian refineries, including increasing volumes from Saudi Arabia.
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That’s right. Saudia Arabia, the oil-rich kingdom that is waging a brutal price war to shore up its share of the market and devastating Canada’s oil and gas sector along the way, dumped typically 84,017 barrels each day of its cheap oil in New Brunswick’s Irving Oil Ltd. refinery in 2015, based on data published by the National Energy Board (NEB). That’s up from 63,046 b/d typically in 2012.
Overall, refiners in Quebec, Ontario, Newfoundland and New Brunswick imported about 650,000 barrels each day from foreign producers in 2015. Along with Saudi Arabia, the oil originated from america, Algeria, Angola, Nigeria, since there is insufficient pipeline ability to import it from Western Canada, which produces far more oil of computer needs.
The reversal of Enbridge Inc.’s Line 9, which is finally ready to go after much opposition and moves up to 240,000 b/d of Western Canadian oil to Montreal, means oil imports will drop this year – but not likely from Saudi Arabia.
Wouldn’t it’s nice if refineries within our own country took this oil rather than foreign oil?
The Irving refinery, Canada’s largest, says on its website it features a long-term supplier partnership using the Saudis. The company is a huge supporter of TransCanada Corp.’s proposed Energy East pipeline from Alberta to New Brunswick, but until it’s done, it has a 350,000 b/d refinery to keep in business.
“We source oil throughout the world for the refinery in Saint
John, N.B.,” said a spokesman for Irving. “Our crude imports come from oil producing regions such as Saudi Arabia, Norway, the united states, and Canada – including Newfoundland and Labrador, Alberta and Saskatchewan. Canadian crude is processed at our refinery, from some of the same producers who would be shipping product via the Energy East pipeline.”
The Saudi imports alone are equivalent to the daily manufacture of a mid-sized producer for example Calgary-based Penn West Exploration Ltd., certainly one of lots of Canadian companies that are can not remain solvent after slashing jobs and budgets to survive the Saudi-instigated oil price collapse.
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Where is the political outrage over oil imports from rogue nations with inferior environmental records and deplorable behaviours toward women, dissidents and minorities? Where would be the beefed up regulatory reviews of Saudi Arabia’s climate change impacts, or their dumping practices? Why is Canada so consumed with scrubbing its oil clean while oil from foreign sources flows into the gasoline tanks of Eastern Canadians free of scrutiny?
“If we elect to import oil from Saudi Arabia – shouldn’t we estimate the total GHG (greenhouse gas emission) impact of Saudi Arabian oil, which must include the military footprint of safeguarding that oil in the midst of a perpetual battleground?” asks Terry Etam in a column for that BOE Report, a business online trade publication. “Could someone please show the calculation for how much GHG is emitted by a fighter jet launching air strikes to irritate neighbours, including the chaotic aftermath? What are the CO2 emissions of torched oil wells that will take months to put out? How much GHG is emitted by tanks blowing some misconception?”
Meanwhile, refineries in Quebec – where mayors led by Montreal’s Denis Coderre are fighting Energy East – are relying heavily on imports in the Usa, a great deal developing oil trains, even while President Barack Obama killed the Keystone XL pipeline to frustrate imports of “dirty” Canadian oil.
“If the recent past is any suggestion, like 2015, we’ll potentially be losing over 500,000 b/d of product from Western Canada due to shut-ins given the price levels,” said Tim Pickering, president of Calgary-based commodities trading firm Auspice Capital Advisors. “This will probably be exacerbated to a minimum of 600,000 b/d by capital expenditure cut-backs. Wouldn’t it be nice if refineries within our own country took this oil rather than foreign oil? It might potentially tighten up the whole North American supply/demand picture.”
Yet the primary preoccupation of political leaders like Liberal Pm Justin Trudeau is to tighten the screws of regulatory reviews of Canadian pipeline projects, by looking at their global warming impacts and expanding consultations, even if it means keeping Canada’s already highly regulated oil in the earth and purchasing foreign oil to meet demand.
“We are going to refuse, we don’t like our oil, we will buy oil instead from all of these countries and we are going to fund these kinds of international behaviors – and that is OK because we’re feeling better in our conscience,” said Gaetan Caron, an old National Energy Board chairman who’s now an executive fellow in the School of Public Policy in the University of Calgary and questions the priority.
It’s come to this due to pressure of groups such as the Sierra Club, which inside a recent statement took credit for rallying Quebec mayors against Energy East. “When the Montreal Urban Community – announced its opposition to TransCanada Corporation’s controversial Energy East pipeline yesterday, nearly two dozen hard-working volunteers with Sierra Club Canada’s Quebec Chapter took a victory lap,” the group said.
Or because it’s an expedient method to build political capital in order to show Canada is making progress on its new climate commitments to the international community or because reducing greenhouse gas emissions fairly is a lot harder than picking on pipelines. Less hypocrisy and much more respect for that needs of ordinary Canadians could be nice every now and then.
ccattaneo@nationalpost.com
twitter.com/cattaneooutwest
