{"id":6267,"date":"2018-04-19T16:03:33","date_gmt":"2018-04-19T20:03:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/business.financialpost.com\/?p=1578139"},"modified":"2018-04-19T16:03:33","modified_gmt":"2018-04-19T20:03:33","slug":"oilpatch-frets-over-unintended-consequences-of-albertas-new-power-to-cut-b-c-oil-shipments","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/2018\/04\/19\/oilpatch-frets-over-unintended-consequences-of-albertas-new-power-to-cut-b-c-oil-shipments\/","title":{"rendered":"Oilpatch frets over \u2018unintended consequences\u2019 of Alberta\u2019s new power to cut B.C. oil shipments"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe class='youtube-player' type='text\/html' width='640' height='390' src='http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/kwz9kKDlnP4?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;%23038;fs=1&#038;%23038;autohide=2&#038;%23038;showsearch=0&#038;%23038;showinfo=1&#038;%23038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;%23038;wmode=transparent' allowfullscreen='true' style='border:0;'><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>CALGARY \u2013 In the wrong hands, Alberta\u2019s new law to cut off oil shipments to British Columbia could be \u201cvery dangerous\u201d even if the powers help in the fight over the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion in the short term, Canadian oil and gas executives said Thursday.<\/p>\n<p>While Alberta\u2019s Bill 12, called Preserving Canada\u2019s Economic Prosperity Act, is aimed at the B.C. government for obstructing the construction of Kinder Morgan Canada Ltd.\u2019s $7.4-billion Trans Mountain pipeline expansion, fears are growing in the oilpatch over the sweeping powers contained within the law.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt has a lot of power to it. In the wrong hands, that could be a very dangerous piece of legislation,\u201d Canadian Energy Pipelines Association CEO Chris Bloomer said of the Alberta government\u2019s new law that would allow it to cut off oil, natural gas and refined fuel shipments to B.C. and elsewhere.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAll of these interventions could create unintended consequences down the road,\u201d Bloomer said at a Senate of Canada meeting in Ottawa to study challenges to domestic exporters of oil and gas.<\/p>\n<ul class=\"related_links\">\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/business.financialpost.com\/commodities\/energy\/new-law-would-allow-alberta-to-restrict-flow-of-oil-and-gas\">New law would allow Alberta to restrict flow of oil and gas as Trans Mountain battle escalates<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/business.financialpost.com\/commodities\/energy\/majority-of-b-c-now-in-favour-of-trans-mountain-but-not-swayed-by-albertas-threats-to-cut-off-oil-supplies-poll\">Brawl over Trans Mountain pipeline strengthens case that project is &#039;untenable&#039;, says Kinder Morgan<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Bloomer\u2019s group represents Canadian pipeline operators, including Kinder Morgan Canada, which announced Wednesday that Alberta\u2019s and Ottawa\u2019s efforts to provide financial assurance for the project solved only half of the problem currently facing the Trans Mountain project.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMost of the project and most of the investment is in British Columbia,\u201d Kinder Morgan Inc. CEO Steve Kean said on an earnings call Wednesday, adding the financial assurances did not solve the operational problems of building the project in a hostile jurisdiction.<\/p>\n<p>Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has said legislation is coming to provide a clear path forward for Kinder Morgan, and Alberta Premier Rachel Notley has introduced Bill 12 to ramp up pressure on B.C.<\/p>\n<p>When in force, Alberta\u2019s new law would require companies to obtain a license from the province\u2019s energy minister to send crude oil, natural gas or refined products like gasoline out of the province on any form of transportation.<\/p>\n<p>Alberta escalated its threats to use the law on Wednesday after B.C. lawmakers said they would file a legal case to test its powers to block the pipeline by the end of the month.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_1578295\" style=\"width: 650px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/wpmedia.business.financialpost.com\/2018\/04\/0419transmountain.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" data-attachment-id=\"1578295\" data-permalink=\"http:\/\/business.financialpost.com\/commodities\/energy\/pipeline-companies-concerned-about-unintended-consequences-from-albertas-new-power-to-restrict-oil-shipments-to-b-c\/attachment\/0419transmountain\/\" data-orig-file=\"http:\/\/wpmedia.business.financialpost.com\/2018\/04\/0419transmountain.jpg\" data-orig-size=\"1000,750\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;\\u00a9 2018 Bloomberg Finance LP&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"0419transmountain\" data-image-description=\"&lt;p&gt;A &#8220;No Trespassing&#8221; sign is displayed on a fence outside of the Kinder Morgan Inc. facility in Burnaby, British Columbia.&lt;\/p&gt;\n\" data-medium-file=\"http:\/\/wpmedia.business.financialpost.com\/2018\/04\/0419transmountain.jpg?w=300\" data-large-file=\"http:\/\/wpmedia.business.financialpost.com\/2018\/04\/0419transmountain.jpg?w=640\" class=\"size-large wp-image-1578295\" src=\"http:\/\/wpmedia.business.financialpost.com\/2018\/04\/0419transmountain.jpg?w=640&#038;h=480\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" srcset=\"http:\/\/wpmedia.business.financialpost.com\/2018\/04\/0419transmountain.jpg?w=640&amp;h=480 640w, http:\/\/wpmedia.business.financialpost.com\/2018\/04\/0419transmountain.jpg?w=150&amp;h=113 150w, http:\/\/wpmedia.business.financialpost.com\/2018\/04\/0419transmountain.jpg?w=300&amp;h=225 300w, http:\/\/wpmedia.business.financialpost.com\/2018\/04\/0419transmountain.jpg?w=768&amp;h=576 768w, http:\/\/wpmedia.business.financialpost.com\/2018\/04\/0419transmountain.jpg 1000w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">A &#8220;No Trespassing&#8221; sign is displayed on a fence outside of the Kinder Morgan Inc. facility in Burnaby, British Columbia.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>&#8220;This is just continued game playing by the B.C. government and it&#8217;s these kinds of roadblocks that make us more determined than ever. That&#8217;s why we&#8217;ve introduced Bill 12 and we&#8217;ll be passing it into law to use it,&#8221; Alberta Energy Minister Marg McCuaig-Boyd said.<\/p>\n<p>She did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the energy industry&#8217;s long-term concerns about the bill on Thursday, but had previously said she had hoped she would never need to use the powers contained in the law.<\/p>\n<p>Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers president and CEO Tim McMillan, who also attended the Senate meeting, echoed Bloomer\u2019s concerns over Alberta\u2019s Bill 12.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe support the Alberta government\u2019s efforts to raise the pressure here,\u201d McMillan said, however, he cautioned that \u201cwhen the premier introduced (Bill 12), she said she hopes that we never have to execute on this. We would share that hope.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Canada\u2019s largest integrated energy producer Suncor Energy Inc., which has committed to shipping its oilsands barrels on the expanded Trans Mountain pipeline, is also concerned that Alberta&#8217;s law to throttle back oil shipments to B.C. could affect its customers.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe also appreciate the support that this legislation indicates but we have many, many customers in British Columbia, so we hope the legislation would never be called upon,\u201d Suncor vice-president, investor relations Steve Douglas said.<\/p>\n<p>Bloomer, McMilland and Douglas were in Ottawa on Thursday to discuss problems facing Canadian energy exports, including the Trans Mountain pipeline fight, the escalating trade war and why TransCanada Corp.\u2019s Energy East pipeline was cancelled.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are where we are in many respects because the government has not been able to articulate a vision for our energy resources. They\u2019ve been able to articulate a vision for climate change, for Indigenous reconciliation and so on,\u201d he said, adding that a similar vision was needed for oil and gas products.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have to go back to basic principles and have that conversation. We\u2019re shooting in the dark because we don\u2019t know what the target is,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Senator Ghislain Maltais responded that the energy industry has not done itself any favours by failing to communicate its value to the population, and this has led to opposition to pipelines in both B.C. and Quebec.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou said the government doesn\u2019t have a strategy \u2013 you need to have a strategy. Leave your offices and go across Canada and you\u2019ll see you have long-term capital,\u201d Maltais said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn Quebec, 50 per cent of the population supports you. I hope you don\u2019t make the mistake as what took place with Energy East. Go out and meet Quebeckers (and other Canadians) and explain to them what you want to do,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p><em>\u2022 Email: <a href=\"http:\/\/business.financialpost.com\/commodities\/energy\/gmorgan@nationalpost.com%E2%80%9D\">gmorgan@nationalpost.com<\/a> | Twitter: <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/geoffreymorgan\" class=\"twitter-follow-button\">geoffreymorgan<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Oilpatch executives argue Ottawa has been able to articulate a vision for climate change and Indigenous reconciliation, but the energy sector was left &#8216;shooting in the dark&#8217;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":578,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6267"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/578"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6267"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6267\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6268,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6267\/revisions\/6268"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6267"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6267"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6267"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}