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Industry likes oilsands plan
Government report 'builds on vision' in provincial energy strategy
By Dave Cooper, The
Industry welcomed "My membership needs communities in which our employees work to have a quality of life that attracts and retains the kinds of people we need to operate our facilities," said Don Thompson, board chairman of the Oil Sands Developers Group. "It's never a bad time to have plans to support an industry that is a cornerstone of the Responsible Actions: A Plan for Priority actions included initiating an independent review of research and innovation systems to identify gaps and developing an integrated, efficient and co-ordinated approach to oilsands development. "I think the degree to which we can co-ordinate and speed up research and development is in everyone's best interest," said Thompson, who noted that oilsands is a business driven by technological development. "When I started 30 years ago we were processing ore at 80 C, now it is 40 C, so we have cut in half the process temperature. That kind of energy saving depends on a solid research component." Neil Shelly, executive director of "Particularly the focus on the need for more value-added industry, it's a step in the right direction," he said. Shelly said the report is a bit more specific than the energy strategy. "For one thing, it says the province will use regulatory and fiscal approaches to encourage value-added development to achieve the value chain's full potential, and that's encouraging for us." In order to achieve this goal, Shelly said the province must get involved in promoting bitumen upgrading and petrochemical facilities. "This is the first indication that the province is going to do something to sweeten the pot, to encourage action." The report also mentions promoting heavy oil tolls that accurately reflect the costs of shipment. "It costs more to ship heavy crude by pipeline because it takes more energy to make it move, but now the tolls take an average by volume," Shelly said. "So the heavy oil is subsidized by lighter oil. "This will help make our business case, that it will cost even more to ship our product to Chicago or Houston. It won't tip the scales at maybe 50 cents or a dollar a barrel, but it's just another arrow in our quiver." Donald Rigney, mayor of "We should have one to 11/2 upgraders under construction at any time to even out employment in the region. "The province was involved in the 1960s encouraging Suncor and Syncrude, and it should do so again to encourage the upgraders," Rigney said, suggesting provincial financial support, co-ownership or guarantees of some kind. Sturgeon and neighbouring municipalities were expecting up to nine upgrader projects and spent money on infrastructure. Gil McGowan, president of the Alberta Federation of Labour, said the report indicates the government will "urge" and "encourage" big energy players to diversify the industry. But what it doesn't say is that the government will actually intervene. "This kind of limp language is cold comfort to the thousands of construction and energy workers who have lost their jobs over the past two months -- and the thousands of others who will almost certainly meet the same fate over the next year." McGowan points out that the report downgrades the government's promise to upgrade and refine more bitumen in the province to an "aspirational goal." At the same time, he said the report specifically says the government will encourage the development of more outbound pipelines -- which, up to this point, have been little more than bitumen superhighways, taking raw bitumen (and potential © Copyright (c) The |
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