Alberta will oppose any move by the European Union to ban imports of crude oil from the western Canadian province because of environmental concerns, a senior government official said Tuesday.
"We will make sure oil sands products are not wrongly targeted by them [EU] under the proposed low-carbon fuels standard and emission legislation and will oppose any discrimination against our extra-heavy crude oil," said Diana McQueen, parliamentary assistant to the provincial energy minister.
"In the past few years, with the application of new technology, carbon emissions in Alberta have been reduced 33% per barrel. Besides, a 12-member delegation from EU Parliament visited the Athabasca region last month and they were impressed by the work oil companies are doing in managing tailings ponds and reducing GHG [green house gas] emissions."
In 2009, the EU proposed a climate legislation that would have restricted probable fuel imports from Alberta's oil sands in the future. The initial draft of the policy, designed to promote greener fuels, discouraged the use of oil sands products by ranking them as one of the highest carbon emitters.
Following petitions and lobbying from diplomats in Ottawa suggesting that the legislation could be seen as a barrier to the signing of a free trade agreement between Canada and the EU, European experts have sought more time to study the issue.
"The EU will delay adopting a final decision until late 2011. Although we do not export crude oil currently to any European state, we will still not allow them to put a wrong label on us," McQueen said.
In 2008, California announced that it would impose restrictions on the use of western Canadian heavy crude oil, describining it as dirty oil.
Nevertheless, McQueen noted that, "nearly 40% of the global heavy crude oil processing capacity is in the US and for Alberta it will continue to be a big market." She added that, "as we ramp up capacity to 3 million b/d by 2020, a major bottleneck we would face is moving the additional barrels to new markets."
"With over C$15 billion [US$15.05 billion] worth of investments by Asian oil and gas companies in the past 18 months in Alberta and more still to come in 2011, China, Korea, Japan and India are our obvious destinations," she said.
According to the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, current production of crude oil in Alberta is 1.55 million b/d, and this is forecast to rise to 1.66 million b/d next year and 2.02 million b/d in 2015.
--Ashok Dutta
"We will make sure oil sands products are not wrongly targeted by them [EU] under the proposed low-carbon fuels standard and emission legislation and will oppose any discrimination against our extra-heavy crude oil," said Diana McQueen, parliamentary assistant to the provincial energy minister.
"In the past few years, with the application of new technology, carbon emissions in Alberta have been reduced 33% per barrel. Besides, a 12-member delegation from EU Parliament visited the Athabasca region last month and they were impressed by the work oil companies are doing in managing tailings ponds and reducing GHG [green house gas] emissions."
In 2009, the EU proposed a climate legislation that would have restricted probable fuel imports from Alberta's oil sands in the future. The initial draft of the policy, designed to promote greener fuels, discouraged the use of oil sands products by ranking them as one of the highest carbon emitters.
Following petitions and lobbying from diplomats in Ottawa suggesting that the legislation could be seen as a barrier to the signing of a free trade agreement between Canada and the EU, European experts have sought more time to study the issue.
"The EU will delay adopting a final decision until late 2011. Although we do not export crude oil currently to any European state, we will still not allow them to put a wrong label on us," McQueen said.
In 2008, California announced that it would impose restrictions on the use of western Canadian heavy crude oil, describining it as dirty oil.
Nevertheless, McQueen noted that, "nearly 40% of the global heavy crude oil processing capacity is in the US and for Alberta it will continue to be a big market." She added that, "as we ramp up capacity to 3 million b/d by 2020, a major bottleneck we would face is moving the additional barrels to new markets."
"With over C$15 billion [US$15.05 billion] worth of investments by Asian oil and gas companies in the past 18 months in Alberta and more still to come in 2011, China, Korea, Japan and India are our obvious destinations," she said.
According to the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, current production of crude oil in Alberta is 1.55 million b/d, and this is forecast to rise to 1.66 million b/d next year and 2.02 million b/d in 2015.
--Ashok Dutta
