Mining’s old guard needs strong medicine
A new report details subpar investor returns in the mining industry over the last decade, particularly big cap diversified companies which have not adapted to new realities.
Canada’s Prime Minister Stephen Harper says he can’t imagine the Obama administration rejecting the proposed Keystone XL oilsands pipeline, arguing the final decision should be a “complete no-brainer.”
Harper made the comments in an interview with Bloomberg News during his trip to New York for meetings with US business leaders and at the UN. The proposed $7 billion, 3,190km Keystone XL pipeline connecting Alberta’s oil sands to refineries on the US Gulf Coast should help Canada move closer to the international benchmark for crude instead of US pricing which trades at a discount of more than $25. Canada currently pumps 2 million barrels per day to the US, with more than half coming from the oil sands.
The Vancouver Sun quotes from the interview: “Look, it’s hard for me to imagine that the eventual decision would be not to build that. The economic case is so overwhelming. The number of jobs that would be created on both sides of the border is simply enormous. The need for the energy in the United States is enormous.”
MINING.com reported on Wednesday how Saudi Arabia just did the oil sands a huge favour by serving legal papers ordering EthicalOil.org to stop running commercials on the Oprah Winfrey Network about the treatment of women in Saudi Arabia just as controversial website was beginning to look as if its message was being drowned out by Hollywood celebs protesting oil sands pipelines.
MINING.com reported over the weekend TransCanada CEO Russ Girling, told the EnergyNow program Keystone XL is “absolutely” going to happen and quoted US Energy Secretary Steven Chu as saying “having Canada as a supplier of our oil is much more comforting than to have other countries supply our oil.”
The oil sands industry feeding Keystone XL has tripled in size since 1995 and the US government estimates that Canada may double its current output of heavy crude by the end of this decade. A final decision on Keystone XL by US President Obama is expected before the end of the year.
MINING.com also reported in August because the price oil sands producers can charge for exports to the US is falling further behind the international benchmark the viability of many new projects in Alberta are threatened.
