2020年加拿大美国石油进口量占比达77%

　　据彭博社4月14日报道，加拿大能源监管机构的一份最新的报告显示，加拿大越来越依赖从美国进口的石油，这与人们对跨境输油管道和能源独立的激烈争论似乎背道而驰。

　　数据显示，2020年，加拿大对化石燃料的需求因新冠肺炎疫情的影响而严重下降，其中，每五桶进口原油中有近四桶是由美国提供的。加拿大约77%的进口石油来自美国，高于2019年的72%和2010年的6%。值得一提的是，在过去10年中，美国国内油气产量大幅飙升。

　　该监管机构的首席经济学家达伦·克里斯蒂(Darren Christie)表示：“我们确实经常认为两国之间的石油运输关系是‘加拿大生产石油并出口到美国’。但事实并非如此，我们也从美国进口产品。”

　　不过，密切关注加拿大和美国贸易流动，尤其是能源领域的贸易流动的观察人士，可能不会对近年来大量美国原油向北流动感到太惊讶。去年，美国吸收了加拿大96%的石油出口，其中大部分是重质原油，其中一半以上销往美国中西部，在过去15年的大部分时间里，美国中西部一直是管道争端的焦点。

　　但克里斯蒂指出，在水力压裂和水平钻井等新开采技术的推动下，美国石油和天然气产量大幅增加，两国炼油厂对原料的获取变得十分便利。他补充道:“在过去10年里，原油产量增加了一倍多，这是相当显著的增长。这将导致美国的原油供应大幅减少。此前，加拿大从世界各地进口一些原油，我们处在美国北方的地理位置，使得加拿大成为美国大量增加出口投放的市场。”

　　尽管外国石油长期以来一直是加拿大能源组合的一部分，但最新的数据，从美国进口的比例来看，使人们对两国管道系统的连接产生不同的看法。

　　要知道，美国取消了Keystone XL输油管道的扩建计划，这条输油管道将每天额外向美国墨西哥湾沿岸的炼油厂输送80万桶油砂沥青。

　　密歇根州目前正与Enbridge公司就格雷琴·惠特默州长试图关闭5号线的行为进行审理。5号线是一条重要的跨境能源线路，穿越了生态敏感的麦基诺海峡下的五大湖。这条输油管道的支持者们普遍认为，它是为安大略省萨尼亚(Sarnia)炼油厂提供能源的基础设施的关键组成部分。仅在密歇根州，就提供了超过一半的家庭取暖所需的丙烷，更不用说加上邻近的各州了。

　　加拿大大西洋地区对美国石油的依赖尤其严重，在这个地区，输油管道通常是不可取的。过去十年里，那里炼油厂进口量增加了十倍。

　　美国石油研究所(American Petroleum Institute)在一份报告中表示，尽管加拿大对美国的能源出口是对美对加拿大出口的六倍多，但从能源供应和经济影响的角度来看，两国之间的相互依存关系是紧密的。

　　在过去的10年里，两国间的石油交易价值已高达加美贸易总额的20%。美国石油学会表示，加拿大东部90%的石油经过美国或从美国进口。该公司表示:“双边贸易额均以原油为主。原油贸易增长的主要动力是通过管道和铁路从加拿大西部运往美国中西部和墨西哥湾沿岸的重质原油，以及通过管道和海运船从北达科他州和德克萨斯州运往加拿大东部的轻质原油。”

　　王佳晶 摘译自 彭博社

　　原文如下：

　　U.S. oil comprised 77% of Canada's foreign oil imports last year: regulator

　　Canada is growing ever more reliant on imported American oil, a new report from the country's energy regulator suggests, putting a counter-intuitive spin on the fierce debate about cross-border pipelines and energy independence.

　　The United States provided nearly four out of every five barrels of imported crude in 2020, a year when global demand for fossil fuels was badly dented by the COVID-19 pandemic, the latest data from the Canada Energy Regulator shows.

　　Some 77 per cent of Canadian imports came from the U.S., up from 72 per cent in 2019 and a paltry six per cent in 2010, before a dramatic spike in domestic American oil and gas production over the last decade.

　　“We do often think of the pipeline relationship between the two countries as being one of, 'Canada produces and exports to the U.S.,”' said Darren Christie, the regulator's chief economist.

　　“This is specifically showing that there is another side to that coin, which is that we also import production from the U.S.”

　　Close observers of Canada-U.S. trade flows, particularly those in the energy sector, might not be overly surprised by how much American crude oil has been travelling north in recent years.

　　The U.S. absorbed a whopping 96 per cent of Canadian oil exports last year, the bulk of it heavy crude, more than half of it to the U.S. Midwest, which has been ground zero for pipeline disputes for much of the last 15 years.

　　But a massive surge in U.S. oil and gas production, fuelled in part by new extraction technology like fracking and horizontal drilling, has made it a convenient source of feedstock for refineries in both countries, Christie said.

　　“Their crude oil production has more than doubled in the last 10 years, which is quite a remarkable increase,” he said.

　　“That creates a massive supply push out of the U.S. And if we are just north and had previously been importing some crudes from around the world, it's a natural market for a lot of that increased production out of the U.S.”

　　While foreign oil has long been a part of the Canadian energy mix, the latest numbers - along with the proportion of imports from the U.S. - casts the ongoing controversy over pipeline links between the two countries in a surprising new light.

　　On his first day in the Oval Office, President Joe Biden cancelled the Keystone XL pipeline expansion, which would have ferried an additional 800,000 barrels a day of Alberta oilsands bitumen to refineries on the U.S. Gulf Coast.

　　Michigan is currently in court with Enbridge Inc. over Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's efforts to shut down Line 5, a vital cross-border energy link that crosses the Great Lakes beneath the ecologically sensitive Straits of Mackinac.

　　The pipeline is widely billed by its defenders as a critical piece of infrastructure that feeds key refineries in Sarnia, Ont., and provides more than half of the propane needed to heat homes in Michigan alone, to say nothing of neighbouring states.

　　The dependence on U.S. oil is especially high in Atlantic Canada, a region of the country where pipelines are often not an option. Imports to refineries there have increased tenfold over the last decade.

　　While Canada's energy exports to the U.S. are more than six times what moves in the other direction, the interdependence between the two countries is dramatic, both from the standpoint of energy supply and economic impact, the American Petroleum Institute said in a report last week.

　　Over the past 10 years, the value of petroleum liquids traded between the two has measured as high as 20 per cent of all Canada-U.S. trade. Up to 90 per cent of oil refined in Eastern Canada travelled either through or from the U.S., the API said.

　　“Trade volumes in both directions are dominated by crude oil,” it said.

　　“Crude oil trade growth has been primarily driven by heavy crude oil shipped from Western Canada to the U.S. Midwest and Gulf Coast by pipeline and rail, and light crude oil from North Dakota and Texas shipped to Eastern Canada by pipeline and marine vessel.”