Page 7 - NorthAmOil Week 42

NorthAmOil COMMENTARY NorthAmOil
The expansion project is still expected to move forward, but an RBC Capital Markets ana- lyst, Robert Kwan, said in a note that it would likely proceed with more uncertainty than there was before the election.
The NDP and Greens have also stated their desire to adopt more ambitious greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction targets, poten- tially putting them at odds with the developers of major energy projects in the oil sands and elsewhere.
This is despite the fact that the energy indus- tryaccountsfor11%ofCanadianGDP.
“This truly is the worst possible outcome,” Auspice Capital Advisers’ CEO, Tim Pickering, was quoted by Reuters as saying. Auspice man- ages a Canadian crude oil exchange-traded fund. “We have got a Liberal minority and the balance of power shifts to the NDP and the Greens, who are completely opposed to any progressive energy policies,” Pickering continued.
“Canada needs us,” Conservative leader Andrew Scheer told party supporters as the election results became known. “Big nation-building projects and major industries remain under attack, keeping thousands of Canadians out of work and holding back our nation’s potential.”
The NDP’s share of seats is down from the 2015 election, when it won 44 seats, but it is now expected to exert considerably more influence over the new government.
“I think a Liberal government supported by the NDP is likely going to lean farther left,” a
former Liberal finance minister, John Manley, was reported by Reuters as saying.
“It raises a series of issues about what are the demands that an NDP party would make. What’s the price of governing going to be? I think busi- nesses are going to be reluctant to make any moves until they get some satisfaction around that,” he added.
NDP leader Jagmeet Singh said he had spo- ken with Trudeau and told him his party would be “working hard to deliver on making sure we deliver the priorities that Canadians have”. His comments come as concern over environmental issues grows, including in Alberta. About 10,000 people are estimated to have attended a climate march led by teenage activist Greta Thunberg in Alberta’s capital, Edmonton, on October 18, ahead of the federal election.
And indeed, the energy industry has been at pains to demonstrate that it is taking climate change concerns more seriously, but this is more challenging for operators in the oil sands – a resource that has a reputation for being more carbon-intensive than other sources of crude. These operators are engaged in efforts to bring down the carbon intensity of oil sands operations, but the industry still appears unlikely to win over an increasingly environ- mentally conscious public beyond Alberta. Coupled with a persistently low oil price, and now the shift in the balance of power in Parlia- ment, this means the oil sands industry faces considerably more challenges than other parts of Canada’s energy sector.™
The energy industry has been at pains to demonstrate that it is taking climate change concerns more seriously.
Operators are engaged in efforts to bring down the carbon intensity of oil sands operations.
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