Michal probably has a more sophisticated answer than me on this. Just in terms of the economics, and this is really what my comments were earlier vis-à-vis the east coast pipeline, the reversal I think can make sense, and I'm not arguing against that, at least in terms of providing more oil to the Montreal and potentially Atlantic areas.
Just in terms of thinking about building pipelines and whether you go all the way in one direction around North America to get to Asia or you go west and do something else, it all comes down to really the economic advantages of different alternatives. Also, there are very significant advantages of still selling to the United States, particularly to the gulf area.
In my mind, a lot of it is driven by the transportation costs. The netbacks we get in terms of how much we earn ultimately is a payoff to Canada as a whole—when we do get higher netbacks—so the market issues, I think, are critical.
One comment I have to make about upgrading and refining, and I think Michal made this very important point, is that there is a lot of excess capacity in North America, mainly due to changes in what's happening in energy markets, and we have to recognize that. As a result, we also have to remember that our labour force isn't necessarily the largest in the world. When we think about, for example, refining, it's a lot more manpower consuming and capital consuming, as well as upgrading, compared to just selling bitumen to other refineries that are in excess capacity right now. Those are some of the economic issues we have to face. Also, I know that consumers and industry want to have lower energy costs, so we have to remember that keeping our costs down is ultimately very important.
One other final comment is on the natural gas market even in the Atlantic. I think Michal made a very important point that it could be a very important alternative that's going to be available to the Atlantic in the future, particularly in the utility sector as well as in heating and potentially in some areas of transportation. In New Brunswick there are very large shale gas developments, and that could have a very significant impact on development of energy markets in the Atlantic.