Brussels, 04/11/2011 (Agence Europe) - The Canadian federal government and the authorities of the Province of Alberta are working together to oppose EU efforts to restrict the entry of oil sands crude to the European market on the grounds of its impact on climate change. Alberta is the world's largest producer of oil sands crude.
The Province of Alberta has been working very closely with the Canadian government to counter moves by the EU to discriminate against oil sands crude for environmental reasons, said Alberta's Energy Minister Ted Morton on the sidelines of the Global Clean Energy Congress in Calgary on Wednesday 1 November. “The EU's planned directive will be based on inaccurate understanding and knowledge of oil sands production and we will be setting the record straight. I have spoken with (federal) Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver and we have decided jointly to oppose this”, Morton is quoted by the Platts agency as saying. He went on to say that oil companies in Alberta had worked hard since the 1990s to reduce the CO2 emissions that result from the production of crude oil from oil sands by 30%.
Canada and the Province of Alberta are in the firing line of the EU's revised draft directive on fuel quality, which, to reduce the impact of non-conventional fossil fuels on the environment, seeks to review their greenhouse gas emissions upwards (see EUROPE 10467). Of particular concern are oil sands and shale oil, which are highly controversial in Europe. The text in particular targets European importers of oil producers from either of these two sources. The world's main oil sands crude producers, Canada (Province of Alberta) and Venezuela, export very little oil to the EU: the equivalent of 0.01% of imports, but production in Canada is expected to treble by 2020.
In a letter to European Energy Commissioner Günther Oettinger on 23 October, Joe Oliver said that there was no credible evidence to differentiate oil sands crude from other fossil fuels imported into the EU in terms of greenhouse gas emissions at the time of production. The revised draft directive on fuel quality will be discussed by EU member states in December. Between now and then, Canada and the Province of Alberta will be involved in intense lobbying to try to influence the outcome. (EH/transl.rt)