Germany Chancellor plans lithium deal with Serbia after Rio ruling
Olaf Scholz plans to visit Serbia this week to secure supplies of lithium that are critical for the nation’s energy transition and auto industry.
The former premier of Alberta says he doesn’t support the proposed Keystone XL pipeline project because it will take away jobs from Albertans.
I would prefer…we process the bitumen from the oilsands in Alberta and that would create a lot of jobs and job activity,” Peter Lougheed told CBC morning radio talkshow host Anna Maria Tremonti. “That would be a better thing to do than merely send the raw bitumen down the pipeline and they refine it in Texas that means thousands of new jobs in Texas.”
In opposing the pipeline that would carry Canadian oilsands crude south to US refineries, Lougheed joins a chorus of opposition from environmental groups and a number of high-profile celebrities who have demonstrated recently in front of the White House in hopes of persuading President Barack Obamba to kill the project.
Lougheed served as Alberta Premier from 1971 to 1985, during which time he developed the province’s oil and gas resources, and started the Alberta Heritage Fund to protect Alberta’s non-renewable resources.
At the end of August MINING.com reported approval for Keystone took a step closer when the US State Department said the proposed $7 billion extension of the Keystone pipeline to US Gulf Coast refineries would not likely boost the amount of crude produced from Alberta’s oil sands, suggesting it would have limited impact on the environment.
On Sept. 2nd MINING.com reported China is pouring more money into the oil sands other big pipeline project to Canada’s west coast. Slowing demand in the US is adding pressure for a go-ahead on the Northern Gateway pipeline that will stretch for more than 1,100km at a cost of $5.5 billion affording Canada world prices for its oil, currently priced against heavily discounted US crude. Regulatory hearings are scheduled to start in January.
Canada’s oil industry is betting on two massive pipeline projects to take its oil to world markets where it can attain a better price. The Northern Gateway project could send 220 tankers laden with crude to markets in Asia via a port in British Columbia if go-ahead is received to built the pipeline from Alberta’s interior to the coast. The Keystone XL pipeline, which would take Canadian oil to refineries on the US Gulf Coast, could also up prices for oil sands products. A decision on Keystone which now lies with the White House is expected in November.
