World leery of oilsands

Rothschild analyst: Foreigners fail to commit over fear of oil price crash

CALGARY – Canadians are getting accustomed to viewing the Athabasca oilsands as the Holy Grail to an oil-starved world, but the outside view remains cautious.

Franco Bernabe — the Rome-based vice-chairman of prestigious European investment bank Rothschild Europe, former chief executive of Italian integrated energy giant ENI SpA and member of the board of Petro-China — said concern about a return to lower oil prices is keeping many from rushing into Canada’s unconventional deposits.

“The oil industry is a little bit uneasy with the sudden and accelerated pace in which things are happening here in Canada,” Mr. Bernabe, who privatized ENI when he was at its helm from 1992 to 1998, said in an interview.

“There is much more awareness [of the oilsands worldwide] than a couple of years ago, but what I notice is that deeply in the mindset of the oilmen there is a scare that there will be an oversupply” of oil that will drive prices down, making Canada’s high-cost oil less economic.

National Post