What’s happening around the blogosphere these days: ducks & dirty oil.
FORT MCMURRAY, AB, April 29 /CNW/ - Syncrude is working closely with Alberta Fish and Wildlife and Alberta Environment to coordinate recovery efforts relating to a large flock of ducks that landed on Syncrude’s Aurora Settling Basin on Monday, April 28th.
These ducks became coated in residual oil that lies on the surface of the settling basin. It is estimated that 400 - 500 birds were affected. Syncrude has deployed recovery teams to rescue the birds affected by this incident.
In an interesting tussle, a virtually unnoticed clause was added almost at the least moment to a US energy bill that bars the government, in particular the Department of Defense, from using Alberta crude because it is deemed unconventional and too dirty.
We have learned that US energy policy can be and is quite ridiculous. It can be argued that this is once again evidenced by Section 526 of the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007. This provision could potentially prevent the US government, a huge consumer of oil, from procuring fuel derived from Canadian tar sands.
Alberta is known for its resilience; no matter what happens in the US, Alberta will land on its feet – even if that means selling all the oil to China and India.
Sino-Canadian trade relations peaked around 2004 when Enbridge Inc. announced plans to build the half-million-barrel-a-day Gateway pipeline from Fort McMurray, Alta., to Kitimat, B.C., to facilitate tanker exports to Asia and California.
The project was unofficially abandoned in 2006 after the company failed to secure enough oil to fill the line.
At the time, Chinese officials expressed frustration over the unwillingness of Canadian producers to partner up with the state oil company in a production/refining venture that would see Canadian bitumen and heavy oil sent for processing in Asia.
Instead, producers such as EnCana Corp. signed high-profile deals with American refiners to send product to the U.S. while pipeline operators such as Enbridge and TransCanada Corp. announced major new projects to take Alberta oil south to the Gulf Coast.
In the interim, Enbridge has quietly revived Gateway. A footnote in its annual report, released March 31, says it is currently in “commercial discussions” with shippers to build the stalled project.
EDMONTON - Edmonton Airports is close to signing a deal with a Chinese investment group interested in building a huge warehouse at the International.
“We’re in advanced negotiations and it’s a significant investment,” Glen Vanstone, the authority’s director of cargo and business innovation said Friday.
Vanstone, speaking on the progress of the airport’s Port Alberta project, said he couldn’t reveal the name of the group or any more details of the deal.
Sphere: Related ContentThe Prince Rupert terminal is the only deep water port on the west coast and the only one expanding at a time when 20 Chinese ports have booked construction to handle 100 million TEUs. In other words, the Chinese capacity to ship goods will be much higher than west coast ports’ ability to accept those goods, so the Prince Rupert expansion will be operating at full capacity as soon as it opens. Once the new terminal is operational, there will be only one way to move containers west out of Prince Rupert: by train. And every train that moves out of Prince Rupert will have to transit through Edmonton on its way to other major centres across the mid-western United States and central Canada.
