[Mb-civic] CBC News - TOP U.S. POLITICIAN VISITS OILSANDS

Fri Jul 8 17:21:28 PDT 2005

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TOP U.S. POLITICIAN VISITS OILSANDS
WebPosted Fri Jul  8 13:27:26 2005

---U.S. Treasury Secretary John Snow visited Alberta's oilsands on
Friday, highlighting the growing importance of the region as a supplier
of energy to America.

INDEPTH: Alberta's Oilsands

Snow toured an oilsands plant and the booming city of Fort McMurray with
Finance Minister Ralph Goodale before leaving for Calgary, where he met
with Goodale and oil executives.

Canada is the leading foreign energy supplier to the U.S., with oil,
gas and electricity sales worth more than $50 billion a year, Goodale
said recently.

"Within this coming decade, these Canadian sources of supply have the
potential to alter the world's geopolitics because North American energy
security will be potentially more manageable on and within this continent
itself. That could be very good for both of us," he told a New York
audience on June 24.

"I still think it's not necessarily that well known how much of a
resource we have here and what the potential is," Mike Glennon, executive
director of the Regional Issues Working Group in Fort McMurray, told Fort
McMurray Today.

"The only way to get a true sense of the scale of the operation is eyes,
is to see it first hand."

Goodale's message was delivered just as the U.S. was becoming
increasingly concerned about China's energy ambitions in light of the
$18.5 billion US offer by CNOOC Ltd., a Chinese government-owned company,
for Unocal Corp.

The offer to purchase the U.S. oil and gas company has raised concerns
about U.S. energy security.

At the same time, Chinese government companies have made three recent
investments in Alberta energy businesses, including two in the oilsands.

FROM APRIL 14, 2005: New pipeline plans to bring oil to Asian markets

On April 13, CNOOC paid $160 million to buy into privately held Meg
Energy Corp, which plans to produce 25,000 barrels of crude a day from
the Christina Lake project.

It contains 4.8 billion barrels of bitumen, of which two billion barrels
is recoverable, the company said on its website.

On May 31, Synopec, controlled by China, paid about $150 million for 40
per cent of the Northern Lights Project in Fort McMurray.

Controlled by oilsands company Synenco, Northern Lights aims to produce
100,000 barrels a day with an investment of $4.5 billion over five years.