U.S. Imperialism Uses Alberta Oil to Force Regime Change in Venezuela

Make Canada a factor for peace!

The U.S. Gulf Coast (USGC) refineries are designed for heavy oil. They also blend heavy crude with the very light oil from the now oversupplied hydraulically fracked oil extracted from shale deposits. The heavy oil is also a base for certain oil products that lighter oil cannot deliver.

Heavy oil from Venezuela long supplied the USGC refineries with plentiful cheap supply controlled by global energy cartels such as ExxonMobil. The Venezuelan government prior to Hugo Chavez coming to power in 1999 did little to collect royalties or any form of taxes and rent from the U.S. for taking its oil or to enforce environmental or workplace regulations.

The value from oil extraction and sale to the U.S. heavy oil refineries on the U.S. Gulf Coast was not poured back into Venezuela to diversify the economy into manufacturing or to invest in social programs and public services. The vast new value created in the oil industry mostly left the country. A change in that anti-national anti-social direction of the Venezuelan economy occurred when Hugo Chavez came to national political power as President in 1999 and continues to this day under President Maduro.

In reaction to the 1999 change in direction in Venezuelan political and economic affairs, the U.S. imperialists began an unrelenting campaign of sabotage and terror against the Venezuelan economy and people including sanctions, assassinations, kidnappings, direct attempts for regime change and threats of invasion to restore a government and economic direction under the dictate of the U.S. imperialists and their energy cartels.

Alberta Heavy Oil as a Pawn in the U.S. War Against Venezuela Making Canada a Factor for War

The U.S. imperialists seek to crush through sanctions and other means the economy of independent Venezuela and in this way impose regime change. An aspect of the U.S. war economy for regime change in Venezuela directly involves Alberta and its heavy oil. The U.S. ruling elite began to supplant Venezuelan heavy oil in the USGC soon after Hugo Chavez came to power in 1999. This involved developing means of transporting Alberta oil to the USGC along with vastly increasing the capacity of Alberta s heavy oil production.

Alberta oil has gradually replaced Venezuelan oil in the USGC especially during the last ten years. U.S. imports of Canadian heavy crude have more than doubled in the past decade with much of the growth going to the USGC rising from 100,000 bbl/day in 2014 to over 650,000 bbl/day by the middle of 2018. The year 2014 is important as it marks the completion of an Enbridge-built 1,607 km pipeline from Hardisty, Alberta to Superior, Wisconsin. Called Line 67 (Alberta Clipper), the pipeline began to transport 450,000 barrels per day, which has since been expanded to 800,000 bpd. The Alberta oil gathered in Superior is available for reshipment through Enbridge or other pipelines and by rail and trucks south to the USGC.

The Keystone network of pipelines began sending Alberta oil to the U.S. in 2013. The first two phases are capable of delivering 590,000 barrels per day to the U.S. Midwest refineries. Keystone Phase III completed in 2016 can deliver up to 700,000 barrels per day to the Texas refineries. The proposed Phase IV is called the Keystone XL. The U.S. imperialists want increased shipments of Alberta crude and have directed its Alberta flunky Premier Kenney to use public funds to finance the construction of the stalled TC Energy Keystone XL. If completed, the XL is designed to transport 830,000 bbl/day of crude oil from Alberta to the refineries of the U.S. Gulf Coast.

In addition to oil transported to the USGC through pipelines, Statistics Canada reports Canadian crude exports to the U.S. by rail jumped from 300,000 bbl/day at the end of 2018 to 400,000 bbl/day in 2019

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Click images to enlarge[1]

U.S. Uses Alberta Oil in its Campaign of Regime Change
Against Venezuela

The U.S. Gulf Coast (USGC) is one of the world's largest refining hubs, containing some of the world's most complex high-conversion refineries. That makes the region the most important buyer of heavy sour crude produced globally. The U.S. imperialists use USGC, called PADD 3, to set the price for most oil blends including Alberta heavy oil.

The USGC region historically relied on heavy oil imports from Venezuela, Mexico and Colombia but with the campaign of sanctions and regime change against Venezuela and dwindling supplies of heavy oil from Mexico, the U.S. imperialists sought to bring in more heavy oil from Alberta and more recently export the U.S. surplus of domestically produced light crude, which has increased dramatically with the widespread use of hydraulic fracturing. This dual dynamic of increased heavy oil production in Alberta and light oil in the U.S. was a key factor in the dramatic fall in oil prices and subsequent energy crisis that is playing out today.

Reject U.S. Imperialist Control of Alberta Oil!
Time for a New Direction for the Economy!
Make Canada a Factor for Peace!

Note

1. Comparing Alberta oil production in year 2002 with 2018 (Source: Alberta Energy Regulator)

2002

In 2002, conventional oil production of light, medium and heavy crude accounted for just over 43 per cent of Alberta s total crude production. Oil sands (bitumen, upgraded crude), pentanes and condensates made up the balance.

Alberta s conventional oil production of 660,400 barrels per day represented an 8 per cent drop from 2001 levels. Total crude and equivalent production of 1.53 million barrels per day in 2002 represented about 65 per cent of Canada s total output.

Exports to the US were 1.02 million barrels per day.

Oil sands production of bitumen and synthetic crude increased in 2002-03 for the fourth consecutive year, rising from 645,000 barrels a day to a record high of over 740,000 barrels a day, according to the Energy and Utilities Board. Production of raw bitumen (before mined bitumen is upgraded to synthetic crude) reached a record high of over 800,000 barrels per day. Oils sands production in 2002 was also greater than conventional oil production for the first time.

2018

Crude Bitumen Production Crude bitumen production increased by about 7.5 per cent from 2.83 million barrels per day in 2017 to 3.05 million barrels per day in 2018, and therefore continued a rising trend that has been underway since 2008. This was the first time that the annual crude bitumen production in Alberta exceeded three million barrels per day. Total crude bitumen production is comprised of mined production and in-situ production.

The share of crude bitumen production as a percentage of global consumption also increased in 2018, to 3.1 per cent from 2.9 per cent in 2017.

Production of crude oil and equivalent (condensate and pentanes plus) increased by about 13 per cent, from about 715,800 barrels per day in 2017 to about 808,300 barrels per day in 2018.

Conventional production increased by almost 10 per cent from 2017 to 2018, from about 446,100 barrels per day to about 489,600 barrels per day.

Oil Production 2017/2018

Total bitumen production in barrels per day
2.83 million bbl/d (2017)
3.05 million bbl/d (2018)

Conventional Crude Oil Production

0.45 million bbl/d (2017)
0.49 million bbl/d (2018)

Total Crude and Equivalent

Production (conventional, marketable bitumen and SCO, pentanes plus and condensates)
3.40 million bbl/d (2017)
3.72 million bbl/d (2018)

Removals from Alberta

3.25 million bbl/d (2017)
3.53 million bbl/d (2018)

This article was published in

Volume 50 Number 13 -

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U.S. Imperialism Uses Alberta Oil to Force Regime Change in Venezuela