China’s thirst for oil isn’t being quenched by Albertan crude

Despite Asia’s insatiable thirst for oil, the prospects for oil exports from Alberta to the Far East are growing more remote by the day, a leading China expert said in Calgary last week.

“It looks like we’re in hibernation. We’re ignoring the dragon,” said Dr. Wenran Jiang, director of the University of Alberta’s China Institute, on the sidelines of the Canadian Energy Research Institute’s annual oil conference.
Although China accounts for about 17 per cent of the global economy, Chinese investments in the oilsands amount to $300 million — a tiny fraction of the more than $100 billion to be spent on increasing Canadian production over the next decade.

With growing animosity fuelled in part by conflicts over China’s human rights record and protests over the country’s crackdown on Tibet, Jiang said Canada’s political leadership is passing up an opportunity to increase trade and influence between the two nations.

Increasingly, Chinese companies are choosing either to invest in friendlier countries or stay home.

Vancouver Sun