Canadian Bacon
The Torydiary blog has a post on Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his recent speech to the Canada-UK Chamber of Commerce. Canada is not a place I think about much at all, no offence to all the lovely Canadians I know. I like what he has to say about the "war on terror" -
It is a conflict without borders. A conflict fought abroad and at home. A conflict in which the aggressor stands for nothing yet seeks to impose its will. Through the destruction of terrorism. Through the slaughter of the innocent. And through the perversion of a faith. So once more we face, as Churchill put it “gangs of bandits who seek to darken the light of the world. And once more we must appeal to our values, marshal our resources and steadfastly apply our will to defeat them. This war on terror will not be easy. Nor will it be short. But it must be won. And Canada’s new national government is absolutely determined, once again, to stand shoulder to shoulder with our british allies, to stay the course and to win the fight."
I never realised that Canada was so "big in oil" -
Even now, Canada is the only non-OPEC country with growing oil deliverability. And let’s be clear. We are a stable, reliable producer in a volatile, unpredictable world. We believe in the free exchange of energy products based on competitive market principles, not self-serving monopolistic political strategies. That’s why policymakers in Washington – not to mention investors in Houston and New York – now talk about Canada and continental energy security in the same breath. That’s why Canada surpassed the Saudis four years ago as the largest supplier of petroleum products to the United States. And that’s why industry analysts are recommending Canada as “possessing the most attractive combination of circumstances for energy investment of any place in the world.”
It is a conflict without borders. A conflict fought abroad and at home. A conflict in which the aggressor stands for nothing yet seeks to impose its will. Through the destruction of terrorism. Through the slaughter of the innocent. And through the perversion of a faith. So once more we face, as Churchill put it “gangs of bandits who seek to darken the light of the world. And once more we must appeal to our values, marshal our resources and steadfastly apply our will to defeat them. This war on terror will not be easy. Nor will it be short. But it must be won. And Canada’s new national government is absolutely determined, once again, to stand shoulder to shoulder with our british allies, to stay the course and to win the fight."
I never realised that Canada was so "big in oil" -
Even now, Canada is the only non-OPEC country with growing oil deliverability. And let’s be clear. We are a stable, reliable producer in a volatile, unpredictable world. We believe in the free exchange of energy products based on competitive market principles, not self-serving monopolistic political strategies. That’s why policymakers in Washington – not to mention investors in Houston and New York – now talk about Canada and continental energy security in the same breath. That’s why Canada surpassed the Saudis four years ago as the largest supplier of petroleum products to the United States. And that’s why industry analysts are recommending Canada as “possessing the most attractive combination of circumstances for energy investment of any place in the world.”
Labels: War on Terror
posted by Auds | 17:14
4 Comments:
25% of the world's known oil reserves are in one Canadian province, Alberta.
But it is oil shale and needs extensive refining to get a useable product.
The US gets less than 10% of its imported oil from the Middle East.
Exactly. The fuel extracted from oil shale is very expensive. Otherwise Cananda, being next door should have passed the Saudis out years ago.
Venezuela is a huge exporter of oil to the US too. On an unrelated matter have you ever noticed how often Chavez gets 'talked about' compared to other Latin American leaders who are often just as verbose?...
Alberta's oil is economical at about $40/bbl. When it was $18 some years back the province was up excrement creek without a rowing implement.
There is also some non tarsands oil offshore of Newfoundland and Nova Scotia, and some onshore in Saskatchewan I think.
There are ideas being kicked around to build a nuclear power plant in Alberta due to the huge amounts of natural gas required to refine the shale - water is also a big need. A nuke would help somewhat in reducing the massive CO2 load generated from the tarsands.
The other problem in Alberta is that the price of housing and infrastructure in general is rocketing, increasing the cost of refining to the point where some producers are looking at shipping heavy oil to the States (diluted with light hydrocarbons via pipeline from the States to help flow) and refining down there.
There are similarly huge shale deposits in Colorado but the cost of refining, especially given the lack of water in the region and the difficulty in building a nuclear plant anywhere in the US, is still prohibitive.
Auds,
I've never been to Alberta, but anytime I've seen a hockey game from Calgary I've felt I was seeing Dallas. The Flames play their home games in the Saddledome.
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