The Financial Post reports in its Saturday edition that Canadian Natural Resources president Scott Stauth said Thursday that Canada will need a new oil pipeline to the West Coast and more competitive investment policies if it hopes to see another significant phase of oil sands growth. The Post's Meghan Potkins
writes that Mr. Stauth said during CNRL's first quarter earnings call: "There's significant upside for volume development in the oil sands. We need a regulatory framework and a fiscal framework that will allow us to grow those volumes, and for a decade or so in Canada, we have not had the environment, regulatory-wise, to be able to do so." Mr. Stauth joins a chorus of industry executives urging Ottawa to ease regulatory hurdles, including carbon tax increases, to attract more capital to the sector.
The debate occurs during sensitive negotiations between Ottawa and Alberta for a deal to increase energy production, potentially including federal support for a new bitumen pipeline to the West Coast. One stumbling block is how quickly industrial carbon pricing should rise to a minimum effective credit price of $130 per tonne -- a policy Ottawa views as central to meeting the country's emissions-reductions targets.
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