Sunday, January 08, 2012

Steve frets about foreign influence on Enbridge pipeline

"Stephen Harper is warning about the possibility that hearings into Enbridge's Northern Gateway pipeline will be "hijacked" by foreign interests. The Prime Minister is threatening to prevent foreign environmental interests from delaying the approval of a pipeline that would take bitumen from the Alberta oil sands to the West Coast for shipment to Asian markets."
Ok then, let's have a look at some of those 'foreign interests' which have applied for intervenor status at the Enbridge hearings due to start in two days, courtesy of the National Energy Board's  Regulatory Document Index:
Enbridge Northern Gateway Project Joint Review Process 
Registration for Intervenor Status
  • DAEWOOD INTERNATIONAL AMERICA CORP,  Anaheim, California 
  • BP CANADA, subsidiary of BP (formerly British Petroleum) of Gulf Oil disaster fame
  • EXXON MOBIL OIL,  Fairfax, Virginia 
  • SINOCANADA PETROLEUM, Sinopec, China

"Ten companies have contributed $10 million each to help Enbridge finance the regulatory approval process, Enbridge spokesman Paul Stanway said in October.  
China Petroleum & Chemical Corp. also known as Sinopec, was previously the only company that had publicly stated its participation."
G&M : Oil giants back Gateway pipe :
"Gateway’s financial backers include Chinese state-owned energy company Sinopec. Market sources have said they believe China National Petroleum Corp. also holds an interest in Gateway. Sinochem Group, another Chinese energy firm, is also believed to support Gateway."

According to StatsCan in October last year, much of our tarsands is already "hijacked by foreign interests".

Oil and gas extraction and support activities - 2009 
  • Assets - 35.9% under foreign control
  • Operating revenues - 51.1% under foreign control 
  • Operating profits : 41.3% under foreign control
"American-controlled enterprises continued to dominate the shares of assets, revenues and profits under foreign-control. These enterprises increased their share of both revenues and profits to 59.1% and 58.3% respectively." 
"In the oil and gas extraction industry, foreign-controlled enterprises increased their share of revenues to 51.1%. This occurred as revenues declined nearly twice as fast in 2009 for domestic enterprises as they did for foreign enterprises."
I thought this was kinda cute from Ethical Oil's Kathryn Marshall though :
Canadians have much at stake in the construction of the pipeline and “must take a stand against foreigners and their lobbying groups interfering in our decision.”
Okey dokey then. Really looking forward to her defence of China as a foreign 'ethical oil' majority financial backer of the pipeline.

13 comments:

C2 said...

Many companies in Canada are not as Canadian as people think they are...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreign_ownership_of_companies_of_Canada

the regina mom said...

For the edification of your readers, Alison, from the good folks at CorpWatch.org, some excellent info about the corps listed above.

Daewoo International

BP Canada

Total SA

Exxon Mobil Oil

Koch Industries

Sinopec

karen said...

oh poop to Kathryn Marshall. Except for the inevitability of an oil disaster in conjunction with this pipeline, ordinary Canadians have no positive stake in this. No ordinary Canadians are going to profit from this. Give me a break.

West End Bob said...

Sure wish Anna Maria Tremonti of The Current would have another go-round with ms. marshall.

She gave her hell once and it was classic . . . .

Simon said...

Good one Alison. Talk about foreign money. I can't figure out whether they are trying to buy a pipeline, or going for the whole enchilada and trying to buy Canada. But one thing is for sure eh? They know a greasy Con oil pimp when they see one...

Alison said...

Simon : Stockhouse, Aug 31, 2009 :

"The Canadian oilsands saw its largest investment from a Chinese player to date, with PetroChina buying a working interest in two of Athabasca Oil Sands Corp.´s projects for $1.9 billion.

Sinopec Corp. has a 50 per cent stake in the Northern Lights project 100 kilometres northeast of Fort McMurray Alta., with French energy giant Total S.A. holding the rest.

China National Petroleum Company bid on and obtained 11 oilsands leases in 2007, and in 2005 the Chinese Offshore Oil Corporation invested $150 million in Calgary-based Meg Energy.

The Chinese takeover is good news for Alberta, said Alberta Energy spokesman Tim Markle."


Bob : Thanks for that reminder. It's also embedded and discussed in Norm Farrell's Northern Insights link which I added in the update after you commented.


Karen : I'd ignore her nonsense if she wasn't so prominently featured on the CBC and G&M rollodex.


TRM : Oh, excellent links. Ian Reid gets into it in The Real Story update above.

C2 : Thank you!
Your wiki link


Relevant comment from Ed Deak at The Tyee 18 months ago :

"Politicians are nothing more than pimp/executioners of and for the criminal neoclassical market economic economic theory, being taught in our universities as a "science", that's destroying the Earth and humanity.

The tar sands crime wave is part of the "growth" and the "GDP", without any deductions for damages and no politician would dare to question it, as it would bring panic to the almighty stockmarkets.

Then, when the Chinese bring back the money we're paying them for killing our manufacturing infrastructure, praised by economists and the WTO, to buy the country up from under our feet with our own money, it is called "wealth creating foreign investment" that helps to pay for the billions spent on "defence"."

Alison said...

These must be the radicals with their foreign money that our liar-in-chief Harper referenced. Or not.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for this information. Kathryn Marshall's posts on HuffingtonPost are nauseating, but the mods there won't post my questions about how much EthicalOil.org is paying to get their message out.

Any piece of twaddle she puts out should have a "Paid Advertising" disclaimer on the top. In bold. Extra large font.

Anonymous said...

Cons are happy to sell off Canada to whoever will pay yet have the audacity to play the patriotism card about foreign environmental influences.
Where were these delicate patriotic sensibilities when they were soliciting help from the NRA to kill the Canadian long gun registry?

Ian

karen said...

I just read this article from the Terrace Daily by a Haisla Chief Councilor about Mr Harper's fretting:

http://www.terracedaily.ca/show9198a/NO_APOLOGY_FORTHCOMING

Alison said...

Great article from Gerald Amos, Karen. Thanks.
No APOLOGY FORTHCOMING

I see there is an Everything Enbridge Section on the left sidebar. Can't beat local coverage!

JimBobby said...

As I tweeted this AM, this info reduces the credibility of Ethical Oil and OurDecison.ca to less than zero.

Foreign environmental groups and individuals are working for humanity and the future of the planet. Foreign oil companies are human rights abusers, working for their own financial interests.

I think this line drawn in the sand by Oliver (and, of course Harper) is going to backfire in a big way when the gen pop learns how the oil sands are backed by investments from some of the worst human rights abusing corporations on Earth.

Anonymous said...

From the heckling in the House of Commons, you'd think Conservatives are deathly afraid of even the slightest whiff of something that might possibly be somewhat related to Communism.

Their angry rhetoric is nowhere to be found when Communist China comes calling, pocketbook in hand.

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