China's oilsands plans no concern
By Markus Ermisch, Calgary Sun
June 9, 2010
China’s increased appetite for Alberta’s oilsands shouldn’t ring alarm bells in Ottawa, says a market observer.
“Supply will always be controlled by the country where the supplies are,” Tim Marchant, a professor of energy and geopolitics at the International Institute for Resource Industries and Sustainability Studies, said during a panel discussion at the Global Petroleum Show in Calgary on Tuesday.
Chinese state-owned companies have been given a mandate to grow their presence abroad and to lock up energy resources to feed the country’s growing economy.
The Alberta oilsands, as the largest crude reserves outside Saudi Arabia, have whetted the Chinese appetite for oil.
Recent examples of China’s growing interest in the oilsands include a deal,
worth more than $1 billion, between China Investment Corp. and Penn West Energy Trust.
However, Marchant said it’s not yet clear how that strategy will work out.
Japan, in the 1970s, had followed a similar strategy without much success.
— Markus Ermisch
