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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION

Foreigners reaping benefits of oilsands

Majority of profits sent out of country: analysis

By: Mike De Souza

Posted: 05/11/2012 1:00 AM | Comments: 0

Jeff McIntosh / The Canadian Press archives Suncor Energy�s oilsands project in Ft. McMurray, Alta. (CP)

OTTAWA -- More than two-thirds of all oilsands production in Canada is owned by foreign entities, sending a majority of the industry's profits out of the country, says a new analysis released Thursday by a British Columbia-based conservation group.

The research by Forest Ethics Advocacy was based on an analysis of shareholder information in January 2012 from Bloomberg Professional of more than a dozen companies, including nine with headquarters in Canada and six with their head offices in other countries. It found 71 per cent of the ownership of oilsands production was foreign, while the foreign-based companies controlled 24.2 per cent of the sector's production.

"Some notably Canadian oil companies, such as Suncor, Canadian Oil Sands and Husky, are predominantly owned by non-Canadians," said the report. "The data also shows us that more than half of Canada's oil and gas revenue goes to foreign entities."

The environmental group said it supports foreign investment in Canada, but wanted to see more laws and regulations to ensure companies do not leave Canadians with excessive environmental risks while the foreign owners are reaping the profits.

"The bottom line is Canada's policies need to be designed for Canadians, not just for big oil and foreign investors," said Tzeporah Berman, co-founder of Forest Ethics. "Our data today is an important part of the conversation around who is benefiting from this dramatic push and expansion."

But Travis Davies, a spokesman for the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, noted companies pay billions of dollars in royalties, not including about $766 billion in estimated taxes to be collected by federal and provincial governments over the next 25 years.

"Furthermore, employment doesn't occur in a vacuum," Davies said in response to the report. "It's fine for Forest Ethics to point to the producing sector and say employment is relatively small. However, that ignores the over half a million Canadians that depend on the oil and gas industry for their employment."

The analysis, which also used production data in January from Oilsands Review, found $11.7 billion of investments in oilsands production between 2007 and 2011 were coming from China, making up about 16 per cent of the total investments of $73.6 billion in that time period.

Alberta's oilsands sector has become a target of many environmental campaigns because it requires huge amounts of land, water and energy to extract heavy oil from the natural bitumen deposits in the ground.

-- Postmedia News

Foreign affairs

Companies with foreign headquarters:

-- Statoil: 99.83 per cent foreign ownership

-- Mocal Energy: 99.33 per cent foreign ownership

-- Murphy Oil: 99.23 per cent foreign ownership

-- Royal Dutch Shell: 98.49 per cent foreign ownership

-- Devon Energy: 98.44 per cent foreign ownership

-- ConocoPhillips: 97.83 per cent foreign ownership

Companies with Canadian headquarters:

-- Petrobank Energy Resources: 94.8 per cent foreign ownership

-- Husky Energy: 90.9 per cent foreign ownership

-- MEG Energy: 89.1 per cent foreign ownership

-- Imperial Oil: 88.9 per cent foreign ownership

-- Nexen: 69.9 per cent foreign ownership

-- Canadian Natural Resources Limited: 58.8 per cent foreign ownership

-- Suncor Energy: 56.8 per cent foreign ownership

-- Canadian Oil Sands: 56.8 per cent foreign ownership

-- Cenovus: 54.7 per cent foreign ownership

-- source: Forest Ethics Advocacy

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition May 11, 2012 A15

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