As a producer primarily of heavy oil and synthetic oil derived from the oil sands, Canada has a unique opportunity in this market, says Phil Skolnick, analyst with Eight Capital.
“Most of the demand globally where the growth is happening is actually on the heavy oil side [including synthetic oil],” Skolnick says.
That’s largely because of new oil-based petrochemical projects in Asia. Eight Capital research found that over the next five years, approximately 3.2 million barrels per day of additional heavy and medium oil demand will come online as a result. Canada’s current oil sands production is approximately 3 million barrels per day.
“The increase in petrochemical demand is partly driven by electric vehicles because those are largely made of plastic. China wants to also be the leader in polyester exports, so that requires petrochemicals. All these things really require the heavy barrels because of components that just are not in light oil,” Skolnick says.
They are trying to promote bitumen as a premium product, despite it's much higher CO2 emissions.
ROCKMAN wrote:jaw - The increase in pipeline capacity required no physical work to the border crossing section. But did require approval of President Obama. Good luck searching for confirmation. IMHO the MSM did all it could to avoid letting the public know about it.
Biden admin quietly admits canceling Keystone XL Pipeline cost thousands of jobs, billions of dollars
The Biden administration published a congressionally mandated report highlighting the positive economic benefits the Keystone XL Pipeline would have had if President Biden didn't revoke its federal permits.
The report, which the Department of Energy (DOE) completed in late December without any public announcement, says the Keystone XL project would have created between 16,149 and 59,000 jobs and would have had a positive economic impact of between $3.4-9.6 billion, citing various studies. A previous report from the federal government published in 2014 determined 3,900 direct jobs and 21,050 total jobs would be created during construction which was expected to take two years.
But immediately after taking office in January 2021, Biden canceled the pipeline's permits, effectively shutting the project down.
"The Biden administration finally owned up to what we have known all along — killing the Keystone XL Pipeline cost good-paying jobs, hurt Montana’s economy and was the first step in the Biden administration’s war on oil and gas production in the United States," Sen. Steve Daines. R-Mont., said Thursday in a statement. "Unfortunately, the administration continues to pursue energy production anywhere but the United States."
"These policies may appeal to the woke left but hurt Montana’s working families," he continued. "I’ll keep fighting back against Biden’s anti-energy agenda and supporting Montana energy projects and jobs."
The DOE was forced to issue the report after Daines and Sen. Jim Risch, R-Idaho, successfully inserted a bill mandating the report into the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act Biden signed into law in November 2021. The agency was required to publish the report within 90 days of the bill's passage but ultimately waited more than a year before releasing it.
In a statement Thursday, the DOE noted that the project would have had minimal permanent job impacts, but didn't mention the thousands of jobs that were estimated during the construction of the pipeline.
"The U.S. Department of Energy released a report evaluating existing analysis on economic and job effects of the XL portion of Keystone pipeline," the DOE told Fox News Digital. "It concluded there were limited job impacts, with approximately 50 permanent jobs estimated to have been created were the pipeline operational."
Biden's decision to cancel the pipeline has received widespread criticism from Republican lawmakers and energy industry representatives who have argued it would have helped keep gas prices down and ensure energy security.
Keystone XL had been slated to be completed early this year and transport an additional 830,000 barrels of crude oil from Canada to the U.S. through an existing pipeline network, according to its operator, TC Energy.
The project labor agreement that TC Energy signed in August 2020 with four labor unions promised the pipeline would create 42,000 American jobs and provide $2 billion in total wages.
TC Energy ultimately gave up on the project in June 2021 as a result of Biden's decision. Last year, a federal judge tossed a legal challenge from nearly two dozen states asking the court to reinstate the pipeline's permits.
"The Department of Energy finally admitted to the worst-kept secret about the Keystone Pipeline: President Biden’s decision to cancel the Keystone XL Pipeline sacrificed thousands of American jobs," Risch said Thursday.
The Keystone XL Pipeline would have created up to 59,000 jobs and had a positive economic impact of up to $9.6 billion, according to the Department of Energy.
"To make matters worse, his decision moved the U.S. further away from energy independence and lower gas prices at a time when inflation and gas prices are drastically impacting Americans’ pocketbooks," he added.
"The president must turn to American-made energy and jobs rather than dictators and despots to fix the energy crisis he created on his first day in office."
The White House didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.
Keystone pipeline faces new rules after major oil spill
Oil spills along the Keystone pipeline that runs from Canada to Texas have become more frequent and severe, prompting stricter regulations for a 1,200-mile stretch of the pipeline, a federal agency said on Tuesday.
TC Energy, the company that operates the Keystone pipeline, must lower the operating pressure for crude oil on the targeted stretch, which makes up nearly half of the pipeline, the agency said.
"We are currently reviewing the Amended Corrective Action Order (ACAO) issued by the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration," TC Energy said in a statement to ABC News. "Our commitment to the safe operations of our system is unwavering, and we will comply with the ACAO. The Keystone Pipeline System has been operating under operational mitigations, within the pressure restrictions applied in the PHMSA ACAO, since it was returned to service."
The federal order follows a major pipeline rupture on Dec. 7 near Washington, Kansas, a town at the state's northern border with Nebraska, where about 13,000 barrels or 550,000 gallons of crude oil spilled from the Keystone pipeline, the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration said.
The pipeline failure occurred at a girth weld, a point that adjoins two pipes, the agency said.
Since 2009, the Keystone pipeline has experienced three failures at girth welds and at least three additional accidents that occurred for other reasons, the agency said. In all, those accidents resulted in spills totaling about 25,200 barrels of crude oil, the agency said.
Operation of the pipeline under current procedures "is or would be hazardous to life, property, or the environment," the agency said.
In a statement to ABC News, TC Energy said it is investigating and addressing the issues with the pipeline following the accident in December.
"We continue to progress our remediation and the root cause investigation at our Keystone Milepost-14 incident site in Washington County, Kansas," the company said. "Our commitment to the safe operations of our system is unwavering."
The Keystone pipeline runs from oil sand fields in Alberta, Canada through the midwestern U.S. to oil refineries in Texas.
The Keystone XL pipeline, a proposed 1,179-mile pipeline mirroring the Keystone pipeline, shuttered after President Joe Biden canceled the pipeline's border crossing permit in January 2021, days after taking office.
The move was applauded by environmental groups but drew sharp criticism from some Republican lawmakers, who decried the move for placing an unnecessary restriction on the U.S. oil supply.
Oil production in the U.S. in 2021 was nearly identical to that seen over the final year of the Trump administration, in 2020, and greater than the amount produced in 2017 or 2018, according to data from the Energy Information Administration, a federal agency.
Alfred Tennyson wrote:We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are;
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.
Newfie wrote:“Elections have consequences.”
Patronage being one of them.
Newfie wrote:One mans traitor is another’s patriot.
Newfie wrote:All depends on your point of view.
Newfie wrote:I would point to any one who argues against accepting the electoral decision as a traitor.
Newfie wrote:I don’t mean challenging the count within reasonable measure, but one who then refuses to accept the decision.
Newfie wrote:
Thus Trump and those who join him in disavowing the election are a problem.
Newfie wrote:
What they have in common is arguing for Civil War. That is a very high bar for me to cross. Might get there some day but no where close now.
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