The price of crude oil in Canada is impacted by global supply and demand, inventory levels in the United States, and geopolitical events. Canadian Oil price per barrel - $30 USD Price of Arab Oil $120 USD ? "Furious at the setback, Canadian Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper threatened to sell the output to China." Why Is the US willing to buy Arab Oil when Canada has cheaper crude?
Following Keystone Rejection Canada's Oil Sands Headed to China
Beginning in 2005, Congressional Republicans and the oil industry touted the 2,147 mile-long Keystone XL 830,000 barrel per day (bpd) pipeline, running from Canada’s Hardisty, Alberta oil sands to U.S. refineries on the Gulf of Mexico.
But last month, in an attempt to force a decision from the Obama administration on the pipeline, congressional Republicans tacked a rider onto legislation extending the payroll tax cut by requiring the government to decide within 60 days on the issue, which was rejected for the foreseeable future.
But last month, in an attempt to force a decision from the Obama administration on the pipeline, congressional Republicans tacked a rider onto legislation extending the payroll tax cut by requiring the government to decide within 60 days on the issue, which was rejected for the foreseeable future.
Furious at the setback, Canadian Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper threatened to sell the output to China. Last week Harper made an official visit to China and the fruits of that trip are already evident. During a Canada-China business dinner in Guangzhou Harper informed his audience, “We are an emerging energy superpower. We have abundant supplies of virtually every form of energy. And you know, we want to sell our energy to people who want to buy our energy. It's that simple,” adding that virtually all of Canada's energy exports currently go to the U.S. and that it was “increasingly clear” that Canadian commercial interests are best served by diversifying its energy markets.
Guangdong Province Governor Zhu Xiaodan, who attended the dinner, noted that southern China consumes an enormous and ever growing amount of energy and needs additional supplies, telling his guest, "It's our hope in the future we can import more high-quality energy and resource products from Canada." U.S. government statistics bear Harper’s assertions out - according to the U.S. Energy Administration Canada is now the leading exporter of oil to the United States, providing 2.6 million barrels per day (mbpd) of the 9.03 mbpd the U.S. imports every day.
But for Ottawa finding alternative markets is an increasingly high priority, as oil sands have been under development in Alberta since 1967 and investments there now exceed $97 billion.
An alternative to the fickle Americans seems to be on the horizon and Zhu’s hopes have been answered. The Calgary Herald reported on 17 February that Canadian oilsands producer Cenovus Energy Inc. has sent its first shipment of crude oil to China.
Not via the controversial alternative to Keystone XL, the proposed Northern Gateway pipeline, designed to ship oilsands to Canada’s Pacific coast. According to Cenovus Energy Inc. president and chief executive officer Brian Ferguson, the company has sent its first half tanker-load of oil of roughly 250,000 barrels, to an unspecified Chinese customer.
After telling reporters that Cenovus Energy Inc. tripled its fourth-quarter 2011 profits over the corresponding period in 2010 Ferguson said, "We actually just sold our first cargo last week. It's very significant because what it allows us to do is establish a relationship with refineries in terms of how they value and price Cenovus crude. So it's very significant strategically."
Perhaps not surprisingly, Ferguson participated in Harper's trade mission to China.
How did the Cenovus Energy Inc. oilsands reach Canada’s western coast for transshipment?
According to Ferguson, his firm utilized the existing TransMountain Pipeline, which runs from Edmonton to the Westridge Marine Terminal near Vancouver, sending 12,000 bpd through the facility. While most of Cenovus Energy Inc. oilsands’ oil began to be shipped in late 2011, the majority was sent to customers in California and represents less than 10 percent of Cenovus Energy Inc.’s overall oil output, it helped generate the massive profits that Ferguson crowed about, because the crude received a premium over mid-continent Canadian oil by being priced in relation to Brent crude instead of the less expensive West Texas Intermediate.
As Ferguson noted, “It's allowing us to get tidewater pricing off Brent so there's a significant uplift per barrel in terms of price realization.”
Cenovus Energy Inc. has bigger long-term export plans for its oilsands production beyond a mere 12,000 bpd. Cenovus Energy Inc. is a major backer of Enbridge Inc.'s controversial proposed 745 mile-long, $5.5-billion, 525,000 bpd Northern Gateway pipeline, which would stretch from Bruderheim, northeast of Edmonton, to the coastal community of Kitimat in British Colombia, providing an export link to customers in Asia.
But the Northern Gateway pipeline, with a projected operational date of 2017 is hardly a done deal, having aroused the ire of Canadian environmentalists nationwide.
Guangdong Province Governor Zhu Xiaodan, who attended the dinner, noted that southern China consumes an enormous and ever growing amount of energy and needs additional supplies, telling his guest, "It's our hope in the future we can import more high-quality energy and resource products from Canada." U.S. government statistics bear Harper’s assertions out - according to the U.S. Energy Administration Canada is now the leading exporter of oil to the United States, providing 2.6 million barrels per day (mbpd) of the 9.03 mbpd the U.S. imports every day.
But for Ottawa finding alternative markets is an increasingly high priority, as oil sands have been under development in Alberta since 1967 and investments there now exceed $97 billion.
An alternative to the fickle Americans seems to be on the horizon and Zhu’s hopes have been answered. The Calgary Herald reported on 17 February that Canadian oilsands producer Cenovus Energy Inc. has sent its first shipment of crude oil to China.
Not via the controversial alternative to Keystone XL, the proposed Northern Gateway pipeline, designed to ship oilsands to Canada’s Pacific coast. According to Cenovus Energy Inc. president and chief executive officer Brian Ferguson, the company has sent its first half tanker-load of oil of roughly 250,000 barrels, to an unspecified Chinese customer.
After telling reporters that Cenovus Energy Inc. tripled its fourth-quarter 2011 profits over the corresponding period in 2010 Ferguson said, "We actually just sold our first cargo last week. It's very significant because what it allows us to do is establish a relationship with refineries in terms of how they value and price Cenovus crude. So it's very significant strategically."
Perhaps not surprisingly, Ferguson participated in Harper's trade mission to China.
How did the Cenovus Energy Inc. oilsands reach Canada’s western coast for transshipment?
According to Ferguson, his firm utilized the existing TransMountain Pipeline, which runs from Edmonton to the Westridge Marine Terminal near Vancouver, sending 12,000 bpd through the facility. While most of Cenovus Energy Inc. oilsands’ oil began to be shipped in late 2011, the majority was sent to customers in California and represents less than 10 percent of Cenovus Energy Inc.’s overall oil output, it helped generate the massive profits that Ferguson crowed about, because the crude received a premium over mid-continent Canadian oil by being priced in relation to Brent crude instead of the less expensive West Texas Intermediate.
As Ferguson noted, “It's allowing us to get tidewater pricing off Brent so there's a significant uplift per barrel in terms of price realization.”
Cenovus Energy Inc. has bigger long-term export plans for its oilsands production beyond a mere 12,000 bpd. Cenovus Energy Inc. is a major backer of Enbridge Inc.'s controversial proposed 745 mile-long, $5.5-billion, 525,000 bpd Northern Gateway pipeline, which would stretch from Bruderheim, northeast of Edmonton, to the coastal community of Kitimat in British Colombia, providing an export link to customers in Asia.
But the Northern Gateway pipeline, with a projected operational date of 2017 is hardly a done deal, having aroused the ire of Canadian environmentalists nationwide.
And Cenovus Energy Inc. is thinking beyond the present, as Ferguson noted that the firm is continuing to seek a joint venture partner for its Telephone Lake oilsands assets in northern Alberta, with international investors increasingly expressing interest.
So, floods of yuan or a pristine environment? It seems that Harper’s government and Cenovus Energy Inc. have no doubt where Canada’s future lies.
So, floods of yuan or a pristine environment? It seems that Harper’s government and Cenovus Energy Inc. have no doubt where Canada’s future lies.
By. John C.K. Daly of Oilprice.com
High gasoline prices are part of the plan
Gas prices are spiking. That’s great news, right? We have to wean ourselves off the stuff. At least that’s what we’ve been hearing for years. Oil is dirty. We import it from nations that hate our guts (like Canada!). And moreover, we’re running out. Oil is “finite.” Finite much in the way water is finite.
So why aren’t Democrats making the case that the spike in prices is a good thing? Isn’t this basically our energy policy these days? How we “win the future”? If high energy prices were to damage President Barack Obama’s re-election prospects, it would be ironic, considering the left has been telling us to set aside our “dependency” — or, as our most recent Republican president put it, “addiction” — for a long time.
If Democrats had their way, after all, we would be enjoying the economic results of cap-and-trade policy these days — a program designed to increase the cost of energy by creating false demand in a fabricated market. As the theory goes, if you inflate the price of fossil fuels, the barbarians might finally start putting thought into how peat moss might be able to power a toaster.
In 2008, Steven Chu, Obama’s (and, sadly, our own) future secretary of energy (sic) lamented, “Somehow we have to figure out how to boost the price of gasoline to the levels in Europe.” The president, when asked whether he thought $4-a-gallon gas prices were good for the American economy, said, “I think that I would have preferred a gradual adjustment.”
How gradual? Like, what, four years? Or is it eight?
Part of “figuring it out” surely had something to do with the recent decision by Obama to nix the Canadian Keystone XL pipeline project that would have pumped 700,000 barrels of oil per day into the United States. More oil just means more excessive, immoral, ugly energy use.
Well, get used to it. You can’t take three steps without stepping over some potential 10 billion-barrel reserve of dead organisms.
According to the Institute for Energy Research, there is enough natural gas in the U.S. to meet electricity demand for 575 years at current fuel demand, enough to fuel homes heated by natural gas for 857 years and more gas in the U.S. than there is in Russia, Iran, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and some place called Turkmenistan combined. Oil? The U.S. Energy Information Administration estimates that the United States could soon overtake Saudi Arabia and Russia to become the world’s top oil producer. There are tens of billions of easily accessible barrels of offshore oil here at home — and much more oil around the world.
Yes, gas prices have spiked an average of 14 cents a gallon in the past month and about 30 cents a gallon since last November, according to AAA. Oil prices jumped to a nine-month high — more than $105 a barrel — after the Iranians shut down their own energy exports to Britain and France so they could start a much-needed nuclear program, which is, no doubt, for wholly peaceful purposes.
Given the fungability of commodities and the track record of civilization in the Middle East, we’ll likely always have to deal with occasionally painful fluctuations in the price of energy, regardless of what we do at home — drilling and new pipelines included. Still, fluctuations have a lot better track record than price controls.
Subsidizing quixotic green companies or creating carbon credits won’t stop the rules of basic economics. If the gas crunch starts hitting the economy, it’s doubtless that we will get an earful of populist hand-wringing and that we’ll hear the administration once again blame wealthy speculators and nasty oil companies.
Yet in the end, high gas prices are part of the plan. This is what the administration wants. source:
Oil hovers above $106 in Asia amid growing tension over Iran’s nuclear program
SINGAPORE — Oil prices hovered above $106 a barrel Wednesday in Asia amid concern that conflict over Iran’s nuclear program could lead to global crude supply disruptions.
Benchmark crude for April delivery was up 11 cents to $106.36 per barrel late afternoon Singapore time in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract rose $2.65 to settle at $106.25, the highest since May, in New York on Tuesday.
Brent crude was down 16 cents at $121.50 per barrel in London.
Oil has jumped from $96 earlier this month amid escalating tension between Western powers and Iran.
On Tuesday, Iran Gen. Mohammed Hejazi warned his country is prepared to carry out a pre-emptive strike against any nation that threatens Iran. His comments followed Iran’s announcement of war games to practice protecting nuclear and other sensitive sites — viewed as a message to the U.S. and Israel that the Islamic Republic is ready both to defend itself and to retaliate against an armed strike.
Iran said over the weekend that it will stop selling oil to Britain and France in retaliation for a planned European oil embargo this summer.
The move was mainly symbolic — Britain and France import almost no oil from Iran — but it raised concerns that Iran, which produces almost 4 million barrel a day of crude, could take the same hard line with other European nations that use more Iranian crude.
“A real stoppage of 4 million barrels a day will send crude markets to at least $130,” Carl Larry of Oil Outlooks and Opinions said in a report. “A stoppage longer than a month will push that number to $150. Damage to oil fields or transport areas will add even more premium that will not go away for years.”
Iran’s Foreign Ministry also said Tuesday that visiting inspectors won’t be able to tour the country’s nuclear facilities. An International Atomic Energy Agency team arrived in Tehran this week hoping to monitor Iran’s nuclear program. Instead it will only hold talks with officials about ways to cooperate in the future.
The West fears Iran’s nuclear program is aimed at developing atomic weapons. Iran denies the charges, and says its program is for peaceful purposes.
Some analysts expect an improving U.S. economy and tight global crude supplies will also help boost prices. Goldman Sachs said it expects crude to rise to $123.50 during the next 12 months.
“Stronger-than-expected demand against limited inventory and scarce excess production capacity leaves the market extremely vulnerable to price spikes in the near-to-medium term,” Goldman Sachs said in a report. “It is important to emphasize that a spike in oil prices would most likely inflict damage on the economic recovery.”
In other energy trading, heating oil fell 0.1 cent to $3.23 per gallon and gasoline futures slid 0.4 cent to $3.24 per gallon. Natural gas added 0.5 cent to $2.63 per 1,000 cubic feet.
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