China | Northwest Coast Energy News

Enbridge won’t offer better deal to First Nations, may be considering alternate Gateway routes: Reuters

David Ljungren of Reuters, with the Canadian delegation now in Beijing, reports in Enbridge CEO says company won’t offer natives better terms on pipeline (as published in the Globe and Mail) that:

Enbridge Inc. will not offer better financial terms to aboriginal bands standing in the way of a major oil pipeline from energy-rich Alberta to the Pacific Coast, the firm’s chief executive officer said on Thursday.

Pat Daniel also told Reuters that while he was prepared to look at alternate routes for the Northern Gateway pipeline – which is crucial to Canadian plans to export oil to China – he felt the current routing plan [to Kitimat] was the best.

PetroChina looks to Kitimat as it spends $1 billion for Shell shale gas in northeastern BC

PetroChina has bought a 20 per cent stake in Shell Canada’s Groundbirch shale-gas project in north eastern BC, leading to media reports that PetroChina is also investing in Shell’s planned Kitimat liquified natural gas export terminal in Kitimat.

The Groundbirch “play” in the northeastern BC shale gas fields produces 180 million cubic feet of gas a day form 250 wells.

A Hong Kong website, FinanceAsia, reported that PetroChina is paying $1 billion for the stake in the northeast BC shale gas operation.

China Daily confirmed the story, quoting Mao Zefeng, the Beijing-based spokesman of PetroChina, who declined to give the value of the transaction.

China Daily said Shell and PetroChina’s parent agreed in June to increase cooperation in energy exploration in China, estimated to hold the world’s largest reserves of shale gas. The semi-official newspaper says Petro China is looking to Canada to obtain drilling technology and expertise.

“It’s a continuation of our cooperation in China, and we can learn about shale-gas exploration and production by being a partner in the Canadian shale-gas project,” Mao said. “The project will also bring us good investment returns.”

Barron’s also reported that China is looking to get more experience shale gas, quoting Benchmark analyst Mark Gilman who told Dow Jones Newswires. “They are trying to learn about this business, on the basis of their belief that it will better position them to assess and develop similar resources within China,” he said. In fact, Shell and PetroChina are exploring for shale together in China, so the Canadian deal may be a “quid pro quo” gesture to Shell, he added.

Shell executives said at a meeting in London on Thursday that the company has invested $400 million in shale gas exploration in China, funding 15 wells with more in the future.

Last fall, Shell purchased the old Methanex site and the Methanex marine terminal in Kitimat.

Both The Globe and Mail and Postmedia News are tying the investment directly to Shell’s Kitimat LNG export project.

The Globe and Mail says that PetroChina as well as Japan’s Mitsubishi and Korean Gas are stakeholders in the Shell Kitimat LNG project.

PetroChina’s had agreed with Encana, a partner in the KM LNG project to invest $5.4-billion in the company’s shale gas operations in British Columbia. That deal collapsed last fall after the two companies could not agree on finances.

PetroChina is also a heavy investor in the Alberta bitumen sands.

The deal between PetroChina and Shell came on the same day that National Energy Board approved the BC LNG project, the second one to be proposed for Kitimat. The first, approved in October, is the Kitimat LNG project owned by the KM LNG partnership.

It also comes a few days before Prime Minister Stephen Harper begins an official visit to China.

Analysis: Rumour that China, not Canada, will build Gateway adding to pipeline controversy

On the same day:

In Davos, Prime Minister Stephen Harper told the World Economic Forum that his government consider it a “national priority” to ensure the country has the “capacity to export our energy products beyond the United States, and specifically to Asia…In this regard, we will soon take action to ensure that major energy and mining projects are not subject to unnecessary regulatory delays — that is, delay merely for the sake of delay.” (See Globe and Mail Harper vows ‘major transformations’ to position Canada for growth)
The New York Times in In China, Human Costs Are Built Into an iPad exposes the horrendous, almost slave like conditions in China’s dark satanic mills that create and polish the shining iPads (that probably millions actually to use to read the Times.)
In The Ottawa Citizen, Terry Glavin writes Questions Canadians should be asking about China. The University of Victoria journalism professor takes a hard look at the growing power around the world of Sinopec, the Chinese state petroleum company, one of the biggest backers of the Northern Gateway pipeline, saying that “Sinopec became co-author of Stephen Harper’s new foreign policy and energy strategy.”
In the Vancouver Sun, Mark Jaccard, of Simon Fraser university, takes a wider view of the Northern Gateway pipeline and its effect on greenhouse gas emissions in Pipeline itself not the only problem we should worry about and also questions the role of China in oil sands and pipeline development.
A quiet rumour has been heard more and more in Kitimat for the past month, that China, not Enbridge, will build the Northern Gateway pipeline, bringing in thousands of Chinese workers, living in work camps for the pipeline construction.

You hear a rumour once, it’s just a rumour, not worth reporting.

You hear it three or more times; a couple times in quiet conversation with different people, then overhear it in a Shoppers Drug Mart lineup, it means that rumour, unlikely, in fact far fetched, as it would be in reality, shows that the pipeline debate is touching a raw nerve in northwestern British Columbia.

On its surface, the rumour could never be correct, Canada would never agree (as this country did when building the railways more than a century ago) to bring in thousands of Chinese workers to build the pipeline across the British Columbia wilderness.

On the other hand, one thing fuelling the rumour is that when China invests in other countries, often there are compounds full of workers and managers from China, who capture the best jobs in a project, leaving the low-level work to local labour. The media has reporting Chinese abuse of workers in Africa for the past few years. The latest in The Guardian on January 2, 2012, reported Workers claim abuse as China adds Zimbabwe to its scramble for Africa

Underlying the rumour is fear, fear of further loss of jobs to China.

In northwestern BC, the saw mills are closing, while raw logs are shipped to China. Each day CN hauls huge coal trains (coal, of course, one of the greatest contributors to greenhouse gases) to the port of Prince Rupert, returning with intermodal trains, averaging 170 cars, with containers full of cheap Chinese made goods destined mostly for the United States.

According to new poll, published in The Calgary Herald, 84 per cent of Albertans want the bitumen upgraded in the province. (Marc Henry The politics of upgrading Alberta bitumen )

At the same time, the Harper government continues to demonize the environmental objections to the Northern Gateway pipeline, which leads at least one columnist on The Calgary Herald, Stephen Ewart, to say Northern Gateway pipeline debate could stand better diplomacy quoting Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver as saying

“You wouldn’t hear from American special interest groups, celebrity environmentalists and champagne socialists that Canada’s oilsands are subject to the toughest environmental monitoring and regulation in the world,” Oliver said.

Ewart, who is pro-pipeline, goes on to say:

Canada needs an export pipeline to a location on the West Coast to sustain the economic impact on the national economy from oilsands development. What isn’t needed is more antagonistic comments from government ministers.

It will likely take a lot more than diplomatic niceties to calm the pipeline controversy.

The one promise from Enbridge, the Alberta bitmen sands and the Harper government that may have some traction in northwestern British Columbia is tens of thousands of temporary construction jobs. It is well known that there will be very few permanent jobs from the Northern Gateway pipeline in this part of Canada.

Now it appears that some people here in the northwest are starting to believe there won’t even be construction jobs along the Northern Gateway pipeline.

The Calgary oil-patch, who today cheered Environment Minister Peter Kent when he said he would fast track the regulatory process for energy development, should take note, the rumour about vast compounds of Chinese workers building a pipeline through the BC bush is not coming from “champagne socialists” but from working people who want solid, good, long-term, well-paying jobs. These are people who also fish, hunt, hike and boat and are worried about the environmental impact of the pipeline and trying to balance jobs and the environment.

The campaign against “foreign” environmentalists, fronted by Ezra Levant and Ethical Oil but likely originating in the inner circles of the Conservative political war room, may be backfiring.

Raise the question of foreign interference and that incites all kinds of political rumours, rumours unintended in the political bubble just inside the Ottawa Queensway.

The China worker rumour appears to have started just a short while after Ethical Oil’s campaign against the foreign environmentalists began to attract widespread media attention.

The China worker rumour doesn’t come from the political commentary set who published columns today, but from the coffee shops, drug store lineups and Legion Halls.

The China worker rumour shows a lack of trust in northwestern BC for Enbridge, for Sinopec, for the province of Alberta, for the Harper government.

As far fetched as the rumour is, the idea that Chinese workers will build the pipeline can only escalate the controversy over the Northern Gateway pipeline.

Blue Horizon obtains injunction to stop Methanex equipment leaving Kitimat site

Old Methanex site, Kitimat BC — A truck enters the old Methanex site, now being dismantled, on the snowy afternoon of January 13, 2012. (Robin Rowland/Northwest Coast Energy News)

Blue Horizon, the company that had and lost the contract to dismantle the old Methanex site in Kitimat has obtained an injunction preventing the buyer of the equipment from removing the material from the site by the Kitimat River.

Last November, Ko Yo Development of Hong Kong cancelled its contract with Blue Horizon that would have seen the equipment in the plant dismantled and shipped to China.

Part of the old Methanex site is now operated by Cenovus and is used to ship condensate to the Alberta bitumen sands by rail.

Shell purchased the Methanex site and marine terminal in October, 2011, as part of its plans for a liquified natural gas facility at Kitimat. At the time of the contract cancellation in November, Shell spokesman Stephen Doolan told Northwest Coast Energy News “The transaction … does not affect Shell’s purchase of the Cenovus property, nor is Shell involved in any way.” On Friday, Doolan said he had nothing more to add to the original statement.

A news release issued by Blue Horizon says:

Blue Horizon Industries Inc. (“Blue Horizon” or the “Corporation”) (CNSX:BH) announces that its wholly owned subsidiary Blue Horizon Energy Inc. (“BH Energy”), on behalf of its wholly owned division Blue Horizon Contracting, obtained on January 12, 2012 an injunction in the Supreme Court of British Columbia, Vancouver Registry, prohibiting Ko Yo Development Co. Ltd., a Hong Kong incorporated company (“KoYo”) and Guangan Lotusan Natural Gas Chemicals Co. Ltd., a corporation incorporated under the laws of the Peoples Republic of China (“GLN”) from removing any portion of the dismantled ammonia or methanol plants from the Province of British Columbia unless and until KoYo / GLN posts security in court in the amount of $4,180,000 by way of an irrevocable letter of credit or other security acceptable to BH Energy and to the Court.

Mr. Don Allan, President and CEO of Blue Horizon, stated “We are pleased that the Supreme Court of British Columbia ruled quickly and decisively in this matter by issuing the injunction against KoYo / GLN while at the same time awarding significant security for costs and court costs to BH Energy. We are continuing to focus our attention on completing the bid process for a number of new high value dismantling contracts expected to be awarded for execution in 2012 as well as advancing our other operating businesses.”

The dispute between Blue Horizon, the Red Deer based contractor and Hong Kong based Ko Yo goes back months. The original contract was awarded in February, 2011, renegotiated in September 2011 and then cancelled in November, 2011.

Bula sign on Methanex site — On the Methanex Project sign at the entrance to the decomissioning site, stencils from Bula.ca, the new contractor, can be seen overwriting Blue Horizon, the former contractor. (Robin Rowland/Northwest Coast Energy News)

The dismantling of the Methanex plant has since resumed with work being handled by a new contractor, Bula Enterprises, also of Red Deer. A profile of Bula Enterprises on the website shows that it has extensive construction experience, much of it in the Alberta oil patch, including projects for Shell Albian, CNRL, Suncor, Conoco Phillips in Fort McMurray. As of late Friday afternoon, Bula had not returned calls seeking comment on how the injunction might affect the deocommissioning.

Ko Yo Chemical (Group) Limited, formerly Ko Yo Ecological Agrotech (Group) Limited, is a Hong Kong based investment holding company. According to a company profile it is engaged in the research and development, manufacture, marketing and distribution of chemical products, chemical fertilizers and bulk blending fertilizers and has a natural gas energy utilization project at Dazhou City, Sichuan Province, China. The company has a number of subsidiaries with similar names.

Environmental groups re-issue poll, showing BC worried about US, Chinese control of natural resources

A coalition of BC environmental groups have re-released a poll from last spring showing that almost 75 per cent of British Columbians are worried about foreign investment in Canadian natural resources. The poll also shows that only a small minority of British Columbians (15%) are concerned about charitable funding provided by US philanthropic foundations to Canadian environmental groups.

The poll was conducted by Strategic Communications in April 2011 and commissioned by the following groups: BC Sustainable Energy Association; Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society – BC Chapter; Conservation Northwest; Dogwood Initiative; Ecojustice; ForestEthics; Georgia Strait Alliance; Greenpeace; Pembina Institute; Sierra Club BC; West Coast Environmental Law; Wildsight.

The re-release of this poll is aimed at countering a poll last week, commissioned by Enbridge showing wide spread support in BC for the pipeline and an attack ad campaign by the pro-bitumen sands group Ethical Oil, which has been saying that there is too much foreign interference in the Canadian energy regulatory process.

Based on a random online sample of 830 adult British Columbians, the results are considered accurate to within plus or minus 3.4 percent 19 times out of 20.

This poll shows that 47.1% of respondents were very worried and 32.1% somewhat worried about “Americans controlling our natural resources.” Asking if people were worried about China, 39.0 % were very worried and 33.8% were somewhat worried about “China investing in our natural resources.” It shows that 38.3% were “very worried” and 34.2% “somewhat worried” about “China taking or controlling our natural resources.”

The news release from the groups says

“These poll results suggest that the oil lobby’s attacks against environmental groups are out of touch with the true values of British Columbians. The real issue is the unacceptable risk of a foreign-funded pipeline-oil tanker project that would ram pipe through unceded First Nations lands to ship some of the world’s dirtiest oil across thousands of fragile salmon-bearing rivers and streams,” said Will Horter, Executive Director of the Dogwood Initiative. “225 Supertankers a year, many larger than the Exxon Valdez, would need to transit the treacherous fjords of the Great Bear Rainforest, on route to China. This pipeline is all risk and no reward for British Columbians.”

According to the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP), over the three-year period from 2007-2010 alone, foreign companies poured nearly $20 billion dollars into the tar sands. In contrast, according to blogger Vivian Krause, US charitable foundations have given Canadian environmental groups less than 1.5% of that amount over a ten year period, accounting for all charitable funding on Canadian environmental issues ranging from forest protection to fisheries conservation.

“Funding for environmental charities helps to right the imbalance between ordinary citizens and the financial and political influence of multinational companies in Canada,” said Jessica Clogg of West Coast Environmental Law. “Since 1974, our environmental legal aid services have enabled citizens and community groups throughout BC to participate in resource decisions – like the proposed Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline – that would profoundly affect their lives.”

“Canadians value the importance of environmental advocates speaking up for economic development that sustains our communities without destroying the ecology that supports us,” said Sierra Club BC Executive Director George Heyman. “We represent a legitimate Canadian viewpoint that is critical to sound policy-making, particularly when facing the influential, China-backed Enbridge pipeline lobby.”

As with many polls in a polarized situation, there are problems. As Northwest Coast Energy News showed last week, the numbers in the Enbridge-sponsored poll are unreliable for northern British Columbia. The environmental groups’ poll could also be considered suspect by the way the questions were phrased and the order in which they were asked.

Foreign Funding Poll Backgrounder (Data figures from the groups who commissioned the poll)

Links January 8, 2012

Terrace Daily No Apology Forthcoming by Gerald Amos

Canadian Press (via Winnipeg Free Press) Northern Gateway hearings start in Kitimat, B.C. on $5.5 billion oil pipeline proposal

Toronto Star Titanic clash looms over proposed Northern Gateway pipeline

Vancouver Sun series

Spending billions on Northern Gateway pipeline will quickly pay off, experts say

B.C. First Nations fear disastrous spill is inevitable

Could East Coast provide answer in case of oilpatch perfect storm?
CTV News Tempers flare ahead of B.C. pipeline hearings

CTV Question Period
Panel Terry Teegee, Vice Tribal Chief of the Carrier Sekani Tribal Council, Eric Swanson with Dogwood Initiative, and Kathryn Marshall with ethicaloil.org discuss the Northern Gateway pipeline.
Minister of Natural Resources Joe Oliver
(Check links on right side of page)

Column Craig’s Take: The politics of pipelines

Sun Media column (Ezra Levant) A non-foreign affair Pipeline review hearings allowing foreign input is ridiculous — we don’t need another country’s permission. It’s all Canada

Time Anti-BP Protesters Make Cameo Appearance in Pro-BP Ad

Links January 3, 2012

Links January 3, 2012

Northern Gateway

Vancouver Sun series on Northern Gateway

Jan. 3, 2012

Pipelines will fuel plenty of talk Final call on proposal expected at end of 2013, following multitude of hearings and reviews

Environmental groups line up star power against Northern Gateway pipeline

Enbridge is a Canadian success story

First nations fiercely opposed to Northern Gateway

Energy

International Business Times Chinese Court Accepts $78M Oil Spill-Related Lawsuit against ConocoPhillips

Globe and Mail Keystone inspector alleges shoddy work on original pipeline

Globe and Mail U.S. eyes supply side economics of natural gas

Globe and Mail B.C. launches review of oil and gas industry practices

Not just energy: Asia’s demand for aluminum brings $2.7 billion upgrade for RTA Kitimat smelter

Aluminum
Rio Tinto Alcan president primary metals, Jean Simon, announces the go-ahead for the Kitimat Modernization Project at ceremony at the plant in Kitimat, Dec. 1, 2011. (Robin Rowland/Northwest Coast Energy News)

“It’s a go.”

The “go” meant that the Rio Tinto Alcan board had finally approved spending $2.7 billion for the long awaited Kitimat modernization project that would update the 60-year old aluminum smelter, increasing production capacity by 48 per cent to 420,000 tonnes a year.

Rio Tinto Alcan primary metal president Jean Simon made the announcement Thursday, Dec. 1, 2011 to cheers at a theatre (converted from the dining hall) at the new construction camp at the Kitimat smelter.

That money is in addition to expenditures already approved, bringing the total investment in the modernization project to $3.3 billion US.

“This will help us put Kitimat and Canada at the forefront of the 21st century global aluminum industry,” Simon said. “It is a truly transformational project.” He said it was in line with RTA’s long term strategic objective of long life, large scale, low cost assets. The project, Simon said, will take advantage of Rio Tinto Alcan’s competitive advantages: clean self generated hydro power and leading edge technology.

If all goes as expected, the first new metal will be poured in the first of half of 2014.

The new smelter will use a RTA proprietary smelting technology that reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 50 per cent.

The long planned project had been put on hold in 2008 as the world weathered the financial meltdown.

Kitimat mayor Joanne Monaghan said at the ceremony, “This is something our community has been waiting a very long, long time for….Kitimat has suffered through some very had economic times over the last several years and this announcement means we have the certainty that the aluminum business will be here for the next 35 to 50 years… We’ve seen a lot of industry disappear from Kitimat over the past few year and its been hard on our community. In fact, with Methanex leaving, with Eurocan leaving I felt like the mayor of doom. And then, all of a sudden, all of these things are happening. And I feel like the mayor of boom.

“We know the importance of that first initial investment to show that Kitimat is the strategic place to invest. And when RTA began its expansion, and its construction camp, then all of a sudden three LNG plants came on stream. We had a biomass plant ready to come in. So thank you Alcan for starting that whole trend for people coming into our community.”

It is Asia is fueling Kitimat’s new boom, and not just in natural gas, but also in aluminum. When Kitimat was planned and built 60 and more years ago, Asia, China, Japan, Korea were in ruins, devastated by the Second World War. Now it is Asia, and the short great circle route from Kitimat harbour to the market ports, that is one reason that the Kitimat modernization project was approved.

“Most of the aluminum is going into Asia. Korea, Japan and other countries,” Simon said in a post-ceremony news conference. “We’ve been producing here for 60 years and Kitimat has always been recognized as a very solid, reliable and good quality producer of aluminum so our customers from Asia are demanding the metal from Kitimat. So this is good news for them too.”

Paul Henning, RTA vice president of BC operations, is not only a corporate manager. He was the very entertaining master of ceremonies for the announcement. (Robin Rowland/Northwest Coast Energy News).

Paul Henning, VP BC Operations and strategic projects Western Canada, was asked if Kitimat can handle the demand and possible bottle necks with, as well as Kitimat modernization, three LNG projects, possibly the Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline and perhaps other projects in the coming couple of years.

“The good news is that we’re first,” Henning said. “The folks who grab the ball usually have a chance. We’re working with those folks. People availability will be the key. I think there’s a lot of common sense going on, these are mega projects. Mega projects need lots of people. I wouldn’t call it coordination, but there is an understanding. They understand our timing, we understand their timing.

“All being equal we’re not competitors. It’s going to be an extended boom for the region. And of course, the projects are stacked, all trying to happen at the same time.

“It’s challenging, just for resources and infrastructure. If they can be spread, it’s a win, win, win. At the end of the day Our business drives what we do in the timing. Their business care drives their timing. At the end of the day, we’re first in.”

Thursday wasn’t the best day to show Kitimat off to the world, with a cold wind driving sleet, snow and rain all at the same time. BC Premier Christy Clark’s plane was turned back from Terrace Kitimat airport and a second aircraft with RTA CEO Jacynthe Cote was redirected to Prince Rupert.

RTA employees and guests watch a slideshow of historic photos of the early days of Kitimat before the official ceremony announcing the go-ahead for the Kitimat modernization project. (Robin Rowland/Northwest Coast Energy News)

As the audience and guests waited for the arrivals that were not to come, there was a slideshow of historic photos on giant LED screens, showing the early days of Kitimat, the construction of the dam, transmission lines, townsite and the potlines.

Then the elaborate ceremony began, with Paul Henning acting as master of ceremonies, introducing the Haisla Spirit of the Kitlope drummers before Simon made the “go” announcement.

It was good community relations that helped the RTA board give the go-head, Simon said.

“We will also honour the landmark Haisla Nation, Rio Tinto Alcan Legacy Agreement and are proud of this partnership to provide opportunities and training and that is resulting in increasing numbers of Haisla Nation members working on the project,” said Simon.

Haisla chief councillor Ellis Ross had been flying up with Christy Clark, so Councillors Henry Amos, Alex Grant and Keith Nyce were at the ceremony on behalf of the Haisla. “On behalf of the Haisla Nation, we offer you a warm welcome to our Traditional Territory. The Haisla Nation has worked very closely with RTA and supported the reality of this important and exciting decision. Together with RTA, our Nation is very proud of the legacy agreement we have reached.” Nyce said.

The Haisla are not only our closest neighbours but our best friends,” Henning said at the news conference. “It hasn’t always been like that. I think leadership from the Haisla, starting with Steve Wilson, transferring to Ellis Ross. Ellis has taken it to another level. The recognition of wanting to engage in the future was the key. We had to recognize and respect that past, to learn how to work together and build for the future.

“It’s actually a cohesive joint approach to economic development and sustainability within the Haisla First Nation and the plant. It actually betters the plant because we have employees that live here, work here, there are 120 Haisla folks who are working within the operation. That to me is sustainability in real time.”

Henning is also confident that the company will successfully negotiate a new contract with the Canadian Auto Workers local. Henning said that 2007 contract was designed to get the company through to first hot metal but then the financial crisis struck.”The good news gives us certainty.”Henning said. “We know what we have to drive for. We’ll get a contract, we’ll get a contract, we always do. Some are prettier than others. The confidence from this is a great start. The union were here today, I am confident that we will get through and get a contract that really fits this program.”

After he took the podium, Michel Lamarre, director of the Kitimat Modernization Project joked. “We often say that when we get married, and it’s raining, the marriage is very strong and I think this is going to be the case for the KMP project.” He said Kitimat management had made a very solid case for a very solid project to the RTA board.

Michel Lamarre, director of the Kitimat modernization project, talks about the challenges of the next two years until first metal in 2014. (Robin Rowland/Northwest Coast Energy News)

“We are building a state of the art facility which will be a jewel. This is something we can all be proud of… The next two years will be very busy and very exciting. Let’s build the project with zero harm, zero harm to the people who are building it and zero harm to the environment.”

The weather was just too nasty for an official ground breaking ceremony at the construction site, so it was moved indoors, with RTA executives and employees, the Haisla representatives and Mayor Monaghan turning the shovels into a ceremonial pile of dirt.

The indoor groundbreaking ceremony marking the approval of the Kitimat modernization project. Left to right Michel Lamarre, director KMP, RTA operations employee Ron Leibach, Brent Hegger, VP major projects, Kitimat mayor Joanne Monaghan, Jean Simon, RTA president primary metals, Paul Henning, VP BC operations and Henry Amos, Councillor, Haisla Nation. (Dwight Magee/RTA)

New headquarters for National Energy Board is Shanghai, newspaper says

Energy Politics

Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Sunday that moving Canadian oil (really unrefined bitumen from the bitumen sands) from Alberta to China is a priority for his government.

Now, according to the local Black Press giveaway weekly, the Northern Connector, it appears that the Prime Minister has already taken the first step by moving the headquarters of the National Energy Board from Calgary to Shanghai.

Here is the story that appeared in the Nov. 11 edition of the Northern Connector.

Actually, of course, the NEB remains in Calgary and will be holding hearings across the north in early 2012.

PetroChina likely to join Kitimat project, Shell CFO tells Bloomberg

Energy

Eduard Gismatullin, a London-based reporter for Bloomberg News reports in Shell, PetroChina May Ship Canadian LNG to Gain From Asia Prices that:

Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Europe’s largest oil company, together with PetroChina Co. and Japanese and South Korean partners are examining plans to ship liquefied natural gas from Canada’s west coast to Asia.

“This gives us a chance to arbitrage the price differential between $4 gas in North America and with what in the last quarter was around $15 gas prices in Asia,” said Shell Chief Financial Officer Simon Henry. ‘It’s highly likely” that PetroChina will be a partner in the project following collaborations with Shell in Australia and China.