TPT July 2013

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Global Marketplace
74 July 2013
“If we do have energy development, there really is the risk
of unfortunate incidents happening – and it is a risk,” Ms
Redford said in a speech at the Brookings Institution. “But
these are very isolated incidents, and they don’t happen as
often as people might suggest that they could.”
A spokeswoman for the All Risk, No Reward Coalition begs
to differ. Recommending that the Canadian official pay
a visit to the site of the oil spill in Arkansas, Rachel Wolf
said in a statement: “Perhaps [Ms Redford] should . . . see
the true devastation of a tar sands spill and the risks that
families would face before she schedules another speaking
engagement promoting the pipeline.”
Rail vs pipeline oil delivery
At the Brookings, Ms Redford made reference to other means
of transport – rail, truck, river barge – that she said were
much more environmentally damaging and far less safe than
pipelines. Also on 9 April, TransCanada spokesman Shawn
Howard very clearly invoked the significance of the Keystone
XL pipeline to the infrastructure of the United States.
As reported by United Press International, Mr Howard told
Bloomberg News that an “unintended consequence” of failure
to build the pipeline would be an increase in oil deliveries by
rail and offshore tankers. Those methods, he asserted on upi.
com, are not as safe as moving oil by pipeline.
Authorities say that rail vs pipeline for oil delivery is a complex
issue, but some data from the American Association of
Railroads (AAR) may be pertinent. In March, petroleum and
petroleum product deliveries by rail were up 54.3 per cent (to
19,295 carloads) from March 2012. Although pipeline spills
are far worse in terms of volume of oil lost, according to the
AAR railroads report nearly three times as many spills as
pipelines. Oil transport by rail is faster but more expensive
than pipeline delivery.
AAR reported that, overall, deliveries by rail in March were
down 0.5 per cent (to 1.1 million carloads) compared to March
of last year. The monthly decline was the lowest in more than
a year.
› While the American president, who is believed by Obama
watchers to favour Keystone XL, mulls his decision on the
pipeline, the US State Department is conducting a review to
determine whether the much-delayed project is in the national
interest.
For their part, the American Petroleum Institute and
construction unions, which would see some 4,000 temporary
jobs created if the pipeline gains approval, launched a print
and online advertising campaign promoting the economic and
employment benefits of the project.
“Keystone XL is more than a pipeline,” the ads proclaim. “It’s
a lifeline.”
Heavily invested in American
shale assets, Billiton’s chief urges
the US away from the ideal of
energy independence
Writing in Market Watch (San Francisco), Robb M Stewart
reported the chairman of BHP Billiton Ltd as saying that the
US ought to be encouraging oil and natural gas exports rather
than worrying about weaning itself off foreign crude.
Acknowledging a dislike for the terms “energy security” and
“energy independence,” Jacques Nasser told a business
luncheon in Melbourne in April, “I think it would be really
wrong for a country to go down that path.”
Mr Nasser, a former president and CEO of Ford Motor Co
who has headed the Anglo–Australian multinational BHP
since 2010, believes that the US should be both an importer
and exporter of energy. He said the export of onshore oil
and gas, which has surged in recent years as new extraction
techniques have been developed, would deliver geopolitical
benefits to the world and also create a large number of high-
skills jobs. (“BHP: US Should Promote Onshore Oil, Gas
Exports,” 13 April)
Market Watch noted that Billiton, whose chairman would like
to see all forms of energy traded globally, is pumping billions
of dollars into developing shale assets in the United States.
In 2011 the company expanded a petroleum portfolio that
included operations in the US Gulf of Mexico, Australia and
elsewhere by obtaining thousands of acres of shale assets in
the US with the (US)$12.1bn takeover of Petrohawk Energy
Corp (Texas) and $4.75bn purchase of Chesapeake Energy
Corp’s Fayetteville (Arkansas) operation. BHP, which also
produces coal and uranium, has said it expects output of 240
million barrels of oil equivalent through June of this year.
“We’re bullish on energy demand in total,” Mr Nasser said in
Melbourne.