Monday, September 26, 2011

How Should We Ship Canadian Oil?

Today's poll question; how should we ship our oil to the United States? Should we do it with a fleet of thousands of trucks? Should we rely on giant oil tankers? Or maybe, just maybe, a pipeline is actually the best way to move this stuff? We aren't going ship this via Federal Express, so we had best find the most effective and efficient means of transporting our black gold to our biggest customer. There was a small protest in Ottawa today (actually quite a pathetic turnout by recent standards), and somehow I suspect if you polled those people the most popular answer would be to stop selling oil altogether. There is well over a trillion dollars worth of oil in the ground in Alberta, and blocking its sale would lead to catastrophic economic damage. Regardless of what overrated celebrities from cheesy 80s movies you get to protest this development, you can't stop the oil from being sold. It will be transported from point A to point B, guaranteed. The question is how do we want to do it? How many trucks would it take to ship the same volume of oil that the pipeline could ship in a single day?

15 comments:

  1. Stop the pipeline N/S build it W/E keep the jobs in Canada and ship it how the hell you want to.

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  2. Why do we continue to mess around with this American administration, since there is no shortage of other customers or demand. I would prefer to see it refined in Canada but realise that is sadly unlikely.

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  3. My next poll question was going to be should Canada build more oil refineries. When the NDP says we will lose jobs, they are referring to hypothetical jobs that don't currently exist unless the refineries are built. So does that mean that the NDP are advocating a large scale expansion of Canada's oil refining capacity? I doubt it. This country hasn't built a new refinery in about 30 years. Even if we refine the oil in Canada, we still need to ship the refined product south of the border.

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  4. India and China are willing customers with actual money (rather than Timothy Geithner monopoly money), so if the US does not want a pipeline, then we should be gracious and build the pipeline (and a monster tanker terminal) to Prince Rupert instead....

    Just saying

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  5. I applaud the cops who had cameras rolling and came prepared just in case.Id advise police forces keep their own cameras on hand for just such occasions.Turnabout is fair play ,free speech and all that, :)!
    The Americans will do it because its common sense.The saudis will be fuming but there nothing they can do about it.

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  6. Forget the US - China is waiting.

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  7. China is not our friend. Sell the oil to India, Australia or any other nation that shares our values and cultural inheritance.

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  8. We used to have a refinery in Winnipeg. Got dismantled and sold to China :(

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  9. Here's an option not discussed:

    http://www.cn.ca/en/shipping-north-america-alberta-pipeline-on-rail.htm

    More efficient than truck, and available NOW

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  10. Anyone who wants a refinery in Canada is free to build one. If Unions want one so bad why don't they build it?

    Its a trick argument. What Unions want is for the taxpayer to build a big fat overbudget refinery for our little market.

    The big refineries down south are the ones with the big capacity and the big demand.

    As a taxpayer, would you like to try to be as big a customer as the United States? The entire anti-oilsands cause is ridiculous on its face.

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  11. Lets wait for the January USA decision.If they refuse again,build the pipeline east-west and have at least 1 refinery built in each province.Start dropping the price of oil to Canada by 25% of what Quebec pays for its oil from the Arabs.Let,s see how long it takes Quebec to switch allegiance.So my say is shit or get off the pot USA.

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  12. old white guy says.... we need to sell oil outside canada and the u.s. is the closest and biggest market. we also should consider more refining as well as a west to east pipeline. i agree with bertie on the quebec situation.

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  13. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  14. Anon 7:45, we used to have two refineries in Winnipeg but they were closed because of economics of scale. Our refined products are now piped to us from Alberta.

    Keystone XL is a done deal. All of the pumps and pipe are in place, all of the land purchases and leases have been arranged. The U.S. State Department has approved it,the President will rubber stamp it on the premise of job creation.

    The existing Keystone pipeline makes hundreds of millions a month and the XL will make even more.

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