China Anxious to Tap Into Canada’s Tar Sands Oil

It shouldn’t be any surprise that following Obama’s decision to delay the decision on the Keystone XL pipeline until after the 2012 election, and in the process kill 20,000 “shovel-ready” U.S. jobs, Canada is now looking westward to China as an alternative destination for Alberta’s vast tar-sands oil (output is expected to double by the end of the decade). Here are two recent reports:

1. Reuters — “China is set to embrace Canada’s offer of more crude oil, heating up competition with the United States as the world’s top two oil consumers jostle to secure supplies and meet ravenous demand. Canada’s plan to ship crude to Asia got a boost after Prime Minister Stephen Harper said his nation would step up efforts to supply the region after the United States delayed a decision on a pipeline supply link.”

2. Wall Street Journal — “Canadian politicians and energy executives are ratcheting up support for several big infrastructure projects aimed at redirecting the country’s growing oil output to thirsty Asian markets—a move seen as crucial in preventing a looming bottleneck of crude.

The push has taken on fresh urgency after Washington this month pushed back approval of a pipeline envisioned to boost oil exports from Canada to the U.S. Canadian officials lobbied hard for the line, TransCanada Corp.’s Keystone XL, which would run from Alberta to the U.S. Gulf Coast.”

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