Natural Resources committee  It has implications for that. The other part we haven't talked about in terms of the product side is of course the crude slate. We often want to talk about crude as a single type of product. Well, there are multiple different types of crude in terms of their weight, their heavi

Natural Resources committee  I can't. I don't have any specific figures, but suffice to say and reiterate that transporting finished products by pipeline over long land distances is less economically efficient than shipping crude. Yes, when you ship it long distances, some additional refining is again requir

Natural Resources committee  It means you may be using different process units more often or less often within the refinery. More of your feedstock might be going through a certain process unit at a particular time because of seasonality issues than might be going through that process unit at some other time

Natural Resources committee  I would just add to your remarks, Mark, and say let competition work. Canadians enjoy some of the lowest prices for gasoline in the world and we operate on a competitive basis. We think the competitive system works well. My feeling is to let competition work.

Natural Resources committee  Yes, I can use a specific example, and it's a timely one, as a matter of fact. Right now both the provinces and the federal government are working to develop new air quality standards for conventional air emissions. I'm not talking about greenhouse gases; I'm talking about conven

Natural Resources committee  I think that in order to remain competitive, we need to continue to be able to have an investment climate that encourages investment in our refining infrastructure. That investment might be in existing refineries to continue to improve their efficiency or to respond to increasing

Natural Resources committee  Over the past number of years we've certainly seen significant investments in upgrading our refineries. Some have been efficiency upgrades; a number of refineries have made significant investments in being able to upgrade heavier crudes and in particular either synthetic crude or

Natural Resources committee  It's difficult to make forecasts into the long term. There's still lots of uncertainty. We've seen huge swings over the last three or four years in demand, prices, and cost, so it's very difficult. At least in my crystal ball, it's not all that clear in looking out in the future.

Natural Resources committee  I'm not the best person to ask about pipelines. I would suggest to the committee that someone from the Canadian Energy Pipeline Association would be a far better person to address issues directly related to pipelines and pipeline safety than I would.

Natural Resources committee  Ultimately, I think it comes down to economics. It makes more economic sense, rather than producing a small amount of this product and a small amount of that product and a small amount of another product, to focus on achieving economies of scale and producing a lot of one produ

Natural Resources committee  Again, you'd have to ask the chemical people, not me. I'm not particularly an expert on that sector.

Natural Resources committee  I would say no. I think consolidation, and continuing to seek efficiency gains, has been a huge part of maintaining a viable and competitive refining sector in Canada. Yes, we have had some issues over the last year or so with diesel shortages from time to time. The diesel mark

Natural Resources committee  Again, I don't have those exact figures at hand, and I certainly have to confer with my upstream colleagues to get a better handle on the specifics of bitumen production rates over the coming years and the actual capacity of some of those upgraders. I think Mr. Corey mentioned

Natural Resources committee  I don't have the latest figures with me, but in terms of overall refinery production in Canada, a relatively small percentage of our output from refineries is petrochemical feedstocks. The large majority of it is fuel products; probably 90% to 95% is fuel products, and probably s

Natural Resources committee  Again, an answer would be, “Absolutely”. When we talk about an energy strategy, the environmental impacts of energy consumption and production need to be part of that strategy. Certainly, when I go back to the early days of the work that I and my oil and gas value chain colleag