Oil sands freeze a no-brainer for Big Oil

Everybody loves a no-lose proposition. Some people make a career out of searching for them: the investor who pays $10 for stock in a company with $11 per share of cash in the bank; the acquisitive CEO who buys a struggling competitor, strips out the best asset and sells the rest at a profit. No-lose deals are hard to find, but the shrewd exploit them


Oil executives are not dumb. They can see this. They can also see that B.C. just introduced a carbon tax anddread the thought of the feds doing the same. So what better way of greening their image than to call for a halt to new oil sands plays in Athabasca?

Some of the biggest names in the oil patch have done just that. Lining up with the tree huggers at Environment Canada and the Pembina Institute, Petro-Canada, Suncor Energy, Husky Energy and Imperial Oil have backed a partial moratorium on new projects. That’s four of the six largest public energy firms, and there are others, like Shell Canada, alongside them.

If the Alberta government accepts the idea, three vast areas would remain protected, at least until 2011. Score one for the woodland caribou. But what are the oil companies’ motivations? Simply put: This idea costs them little.

Globe and Mail