16-10-05
Canada, the biggest supplier of oil to the US, may export as many as 450,000
barrels of oil a day to China within six years, Canadian Energy Minister John
McCallum said.
China is interested in making “substantial investments leading to substantial
exports'' in Canada's oil sands, McCallum told in a conference call from China
where he spoke with China's resource minister and attended a conference of Group
of 20 finance ministers.
Canada's Prime Minister Paul Martin has said the nation may seek new
customers for its oil after the US ignored a North American Free Trade Act
ruling ordering it to change duties on softwood lumber. Alberta's oil sands,
where crude-encrusted sand is strip-mined or flushed out of wells, hold the
biggest oil reserves outside of Saudi Arabia.
“We are moving forward with great vigour to make this strategic partnership a
reality,'' McCallum said when asked if the Nafta dispute has a bearing on the
nation's overtures to China. “Canada is entirely serious about using every means
at our disposal'' to make sure the US respects Nafta.
The US argued that the Nafta ruling didn't apply because it was superseded by
a more recent decision by the US International Trade Commission. The duties have
stayed in place, and none of the $ 4 bn in levies already collected is being
returned, the US said.
Enbridge, Canada's second-biggest pipeline company, said it would build a
tanker-loading facility and oil pipeline capable of carrying 400,000 bpd to a
deepwater port on the nation's west coast. Canada currently doesn't have large
exports to China because of a lack of port facilities and Chinese refineries
aren't set up to process Canada's heavier grades of crude oil.
Source: PIN/Bloomberg