TransCanada CEO: Oil sands will be developed with or without pipeline

The CEO of the company lobbying to build a pipeline bringing Canadian oil sands to Gulf Coast refiners has a warning for green groups opposing the project: The oil sands will be developed with or without expanded U.S. imports.

TransCanada CEO Russ Girling spoke to Platts as the State Department is mulling whether to approve the company’s $7 billion, 1,700 mile Keystone XL pipeline – a project that’s drawing vigorous opposition from environmental groups.

“Make no mistake, that resource is getting developed. It's the single-greatest driver of the Canadian economy. If the US doesn't want the oil, then somebody else will,” he told the energy news service.

Girling also said: “It's a question of whether you want Canadian oil or you want oil from other places around the globe that don't necessarily share the values which would include environmental protection, protecting rights of workers and other things that Canada strongly stands behind.”

Canada is the biggest supplier of oil to the United States.

Oil sands advocates have long argued that Canada will find buyers as production ramps up – one way or the other. Another pipeline company, Enbridge, is proposing a line that would carry oil sands to Canada’s west coast, making them more accessible to China and other countries.

Environmental groups say the Keystone project brings risks of oil spills and more generally oppose oil sands due to the greenhouse gas-intensive production process and damage to Alberta’s boreal forests.

Jake Schmidt of the Natural Resources Defense Council told E2 that it’s inaccurate to argue that oil sands will be shipped to other buyers if the Keystone pipeline isn’t approved.

Schmidt said there are a host of barriers in the way of proposals to build an oil sands pipeline west to the coast of British Columbia, noting opposition from Canadian indigenous groups (called “First Nations” there), and limits on tanker traffic off the B.C. coast.

“There are lots of political and legal objections to that make that less of a reality in practice,” said Schmidt, the group’s international climate policy director.