Enbridge CEO says Harper bitumen plan no threat
Tue Oct 7, 2008 2:21pm EDT
By Cameron French
TORONTO, Oct 7 (Reuters) - Enbridge Inc Chief Executive Pat Daniel said on Tuesday that a campaign pledge by Canada's governing Conservatives to halt exports of tar-like bitumen to countries whose environmental record is weaker than Canada's is no threat to Enbridge's planned C$4.2 billion pipeline to the Pacific Coast.
Daniel, in Toronto for a meeting with investors, said the campaign pledge, announced by Prime Minister Stephen Harper last month, had blindsided the company, which is the biggest shipper of bitumen, a tar-like form of oil from the Alberta oil sands.
However he said it was unlikely to affect its planned Northern Gateway pipeline, which would carry oil from the oil sands to a tanker port at Kitimat, British Columbia.
"That pronouncement surprised us," Daniel told Reuters. "We don't think it will affect Gateway. One of the points that we've made with regard to Gateway is that we're now looking at a very broad market in Southeast Asia and California, not a more localized (China) market."
Harper announced the export-ban plan while on a campaign stop in Calgary, Alberta, ahead of Canada's Oct. 14 general election.
Asked then by reporters whether the proposed ban on shipments to countries that don't match Canadian efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions could affect future exports of bitumen oil to Asia, he replied: "Well, it could, it absolutely could."
The Harper government has said it plans to cut Canada's greenhouse gas emissions by 20 per cent from 2007 levels by 2020. Environmentalists have criticized the government for not being more stringent and for falling far short of the country's commitment under the Kyoto Protocol.
Daniel said Enbridge is still trying to find out what the prime minister's election promise means.
"I think we need to spend a bit of time interpreting exactly what was meant by the remarks," he said. "We (will) have to go through and evaluate that. But we wouldn't expect it to have a significant impact." ($1=$1.11 Canadian) (Reporting by Cameron French, writing by Scott Haggett; Editing by Peter Galloway)
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http://www.reuters.com/article/marketsNews/idUSN0746570220081007
