Tuesday, July 24, 2007

SPP : Streamlining Pipeline Projects

Yesterday Natural Resources Minister Gary Lunn (Con - Oilslick) met with his US and Mexican counterparts in Victoria to discuss strategy "to ensure speedy regulatory review of the major pipeline projects needed to carry growing volumes of oil sands crude to U.S. markets" in advance of the Three Amigos SPP meetup in Quebec next month.

From the Globe and Mail Business Page :
"We need to look at the regulatory approval process to make sure it is done as quickly and efficiently as possible," Mr. Lunn said.

Lunn was a good deal more proactive than that as reported in Oilweek Magazine earlier this month :
"Ottawa is creating a centralized process for project approvals to increase investor confidence," Lunn said from Calgary.“Our goal is to cut approval time in half."

Because nothing says labour standards and enviromental oversight like a government whose aim is to cut regulations in half.

G&M : ConocoPhillips Co. chairman Jim Mulva said last week the company is eyeing an expansion of the planned pipeline network down to the Gulf Coast, and a refurbishment of its refineries there so they can process oil sands bitumen.

Oilweek : “The prize is that there are a lot of refineries on the Gulf Coast, and they can increase their capacity to turn bitumen into refined products more cheaply than anywhere else,‘‘ said analyst Steven Paget, with First Energy Capital Corp.
"The existing refineries also have the capacity to grow bigger over time without major expansions, so don‘t expect any new Canadian refineries to be announced any time soon," he added.

G&M : "But industry officials worry that regulatory process, which involves the U.S. State Department and several individual states as well as Canadian governments, could prove to be a serious logjam."

After a nod to Council of Canadians and Parklands Institute's opposition to SPP's "deepening continental integration and robbing Canada of control over its resources", G&M concludes :
"But on the energy front, Canada committed to a continental market long ago - in the Canada-U.S. free-trade agreement, and the North American free-trade deal.
Now, governments are essentially dealing with plumbing, looking to clear regulatory blockages."

Yes, not much left for government to do anymore but give the country Drano enemas to flush away all that unsightly regulatory shit.
Someone wake up John Ibbitson so he can pen another column about how all this is just "a conspiracy theory" in the editorial pages of the very same newspaper that published the business page above.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Deregulated pipelines running from Alberta to the Gulf Coast?

Isn't that part of Ibbitson's conspiracy theory?

West End Bob said...

"Now, governments are essentially dealing with plumbing, looking to clear regulatory blockages."

Perhaps this was the real reason for bush's colonoscopy this past weekend . . . .

Anonymous said...

Slightly OT but SPP related:

http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/typepad/rzYD/~3/135240767/mexicos-dilemma.html

Crazy stuff happenin' down in Mexico that's getting little media play up here.

Anonymous said...

Refineries on the Gulf Coast? Would those be the same refineries that Hurricane Katrina allegedly damaged so badly gas prices hit a new high? The same refineries that couldn't withstand a Cat-3 hurricane, in the same place we are told to expect more of the same? Those refineries?

Once again, I stand in awe at the foresight of the collective corporate mind.

Anonymous said...

Nothing wrong with high oil prices and reconstruction contracts, North of 49. ;-)

Cathie from Canada said...

I must say, nothing pisses me off more than being told that any objections NOW are just so futile because everybody already agreed to everything years and years ago and its much too late for anybody to complain NOW, what a bunch of whiners, don't know whats good for you, etc etc etc.

Alison said...

Cathie : Yes!!!!
"Sorry none of this made it to Parliament...oops, too late now."
And it is too late - unless we all make a huge motherfriggin fuss about it.

Anon : Interesting link from Global Guerrillas. Thanks. I don't blog about the Mexican end of all this because I don't know enough about it. But I'm learning.
This from Steve Lendman for instance is very good.

Alison said...

North of 49 : I missed that angle completely. Good point.

Anonymous said...

"Motherfriggin", Alison?

Alison said...

Jan : Cathie doesn't f-bomb much ;-)

Blog Archive