The oil fields discovered in the early days were not large, and the annual output of newly added oil in 1930 was only1520,000 barrels. 1947 the discovery of a large oil field in Leduc, Alberta, stimulated the expansion and merger of international oil companies (especially American companies) in Canada. In the ten years after the discovery of Raduch Oilfield, the oil production capacity soared from 7 million barrels per year to 65.438+0.44 billion barrels per year, the per capita oil consumption tripled, and oil accounted for 46% of the total energy consumption. By 1956, Canada's oil production can meet two-thirds of the country's oil demand, and the situation of 90% oil dependence on imports was changed in the 1920s.
While the oil production capacity is soaring, 80% of the whole oil industry is controlled by foreign capital. By 1962, the eight major international oil companies have 60% oil production and 95% refining capacity. The vertical monopoly position and behavior of international oil companies make it difficult for Canadian oil companies to participate in market competition. The Canadian government and people are worried that the absolute control of foreign capital on the oil industry will further control the national economy and endanger national security, so the government set up a special Gordon Committee in 1957 to investigate the control of foreign capital. Although the investigation report suggested that foreign oil companies operating in Canada should have at least 20%-25% Canadian shares, and the subsidiaries of international oil companies in Canada should purchase more Canadian raw materials and equipment and hire more Canadian managers, the government did not take any concrete measures to change the situation that foreign capital accounted for the vast majority due to the opposition of international oil giants and local governments and the consideration of financial security. The only policy related to foreign investment is 196 1 promulgated the Regulations on Land Use Rights in the Northern Region and the Atlantic and Pacific Coastal Areas, which stipulates that only all Canadian companies or foreign holding companies that Canadians still have the opportunity to invest are entitled to obtain mining and production licenses in the above areas, so that Canadian companies can have control over undeveloped oil blocks. The short-term slowdown of Canada's economic growth and 1973- 1974 the first world oil crisis have prompted the Canadian government to adopt a more active attitude in energy policy and make use of both domestic and international markets to maximize benefits; At the same time, the government is more aware of national interests and national security, and strives to increase the control of its own resources, and established the Canadian Petroleum Company to directly participate in oil and gas development and production as a state.
1956 After the Suez Canal crisis, Canada's economic growth slowed down, which affected its oil production. The actual production in Alberta is only 40% of the production capacity. The intensification of competition in the world crude oil market and the United States began to implement import quota restrictions (which were later exempted) made the Canadian government implement the "National Petroleum Policy" in the form of a statement of 196 1. The national petroleum policy suggests that the oil demand east of the Ottawa River (including Quebec and Atlantic provinces) should be supplied by cheap oil imported from the Middle East and Venezuela, and the oil west of the Ottawa River should be supplied by oil from western Canada. At that time, there was no direct oil pipeline to the eastern region. The purpose of this policy was to ensure cheap crude oil in the eastern region and provide the domestic market and the American market for the growing oil in western Canada. During the period of 1962, the national petroleum policy achieved certain results. Canada's oil exports to the United States increased to 240,000 barrels per day, and its natural gas exports to the United States also reached 72 million Canadian dollars. However, the national oil policy has little influence on the control of foreign capital, and the intensification of competition in the oil market makes more independent oil companies become the targets of multinational companies' acquisition. At that time, the only comprehensive oil company in Canada, PetroCanada, was also acquired by Shell Canada because it could not obtain crude oil for Ontario from the west, which became the victim of the national oil policy, and Canada's ability to control its own oil industry further declined. 1963 the Pearson liberal government, which came to power, also considered monitoring foreign mergers and acquisitions and forced multinational companies to open 25% of their shares to the Canadian public, but its industrial guidance was eventually opposed and resisted by Canadian investment, business and oil companies.
It was not until 1966 that the Canadian government established the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources, which was responsible for the formulation and management of energy resources policies and regulations. 1967, the Canadian government decided to form a consortium with 20 oil exploration companies to jointly develop polar oil and gas, which was the first time that the Canadian federal government really entered the oil and gas industry. The purpose is to promote the development of polar oil and gas and maintain the control of the maximum reserves.
1973 When the first world oil crisis broke out and the price of crude oil rose from US$ 3 to US$ 12, the national oil policy focusing on cheap oil imports naturally came to an end. During the period of 1973- 1980, the Canadian government mainly used the oil import compensation plan and the National Energy Administration to alleviate the impact of the international oil price increase on the Canadian domestic market. The oil import subsidy program aims to manufacture final products in Canada by encouraging the import of crude oil below the international market price, rather than directly importing high-priced petroleum products. This practice is good for large domestic refineries, which is equivalent to implementing a protective tariff of 4.3 cents/gallon on domestic refined oil. National Energy Administration, established in 1959, is an independent energy regulatory agency, mainly responsible for oil and gas import and export management, inter-provincial and international pipeline construction and tariff management. When the oil price is high, Canada controls the oil export by issuing export licenses for oil and refined oil products through the National Energy Administration.
An important measure taken by the Canadian government to control the proportion of foreign capital in the whole economy is that 1973 set up a foreign investment review agency (FIRA), which began to review and control the new foreign capital mergers and acquisitions and diversified business activities (such as finance and insurance) of oil giants in Canada, and gave Canada the opportunity to buy back some Canadian subsidiaries when the equity of the oil giants' parent company changed. The Canadian Investment Act evolved from FIRA, and the government still has veto power over foreign mergers and acquisitions of more than 250 million Canadian dollars.
The first oil crisis and the enhancement of Canada's national interests and national security awareness in the mid-1970s made the Canadian government begin to show policy independence in diplomatic, economic and social aspects and reduce its dependence on the United States. 1975 The establishment of Petro-Canada, a national oil company, to increase control over the country's oil and gas resources was part of the "economic nationalism" thought of Trudeau's Liberal Party government at that time. Petro-Canada has gradually developed into a large-scale comprehensive oil company operating traditional oil and gas fields, oil sands and offshore oil through continuous acquisitions and mergers, and has also become a policy tool for the state to regulate the oil industry. The bankruptcy of the national energy plan made the Canadian government gradually give up its intervention in the energy market, deregulate and turn to market-oriented energy restructuring.
In the early 1980s, the growth of Canadian economy and the improvement of people's living standards greatly increased the energy demand. The proportion of petroleum industry in the economy has increased from 7% in 1974 to 10% in 1980, and oil and gas supply accounts for 57% of the total energy demand. After two oil crises, oil has become a strategic commodity of great significance to Canada's national security and economic foundation. However, the situation of foreign capital controlling energy supply has not been fundamentally changed. Among the total profits of the top 200 companies in Canada, 18 oil and gas companies account for 32% of the profits, of which only four are controlled by Canada.
In order to regain the control of domestic energy, the Trudeau Liberal Party government began to implement the National Energy Plan (NEP) in 1980, with the goal of increasing Canada's oil and gas production share to at least 50% by 1990; Canada controls most oil and gas companies and the Canadian government, increasing their shares in the oil and gas industry. Only in this way can we control the stock right and truly control the company's investment decision, profit distribution, procurement, R&D and company strategy. Under the above objectives, the Canadian government has issued a series of specific policies to encourage the increase of absolute holdings, such as the oil incentive plan, which gives direct loans to Canadian holding companies; Cancel the wear and tear allowance policy; Implement a new oil and gas income tax; Give Canadian oil companies 25% land rights for oil and gas development; Instruct Canadian oil companies to acquire other foreign companies and so on.
The implementation of the new economic policy has been strongly opposed by foreign governments and oil companies. Oil companies have taken such boycott measures as cutting investment budgets and refusing to participate in oil sands projects and offshore oil field development. The US government believes that the new economic policy violates the OECD's international investment guidelines. The real focus of the new economic policy debate comes from the dispute between the Canadian federal government and local governments about the ownership of energy resources. 85% of the oil production comes from western provinces, especially Alberta, and the Constitution gives the provinces jurisdiction over the energy resources under their jurisdiction. NEP is very unpopular in the western provinces, and it is regarded as a federal competition for resource income in various provinces. The new economic policy's oil and gas income tax (PGRT) is regarded as a double taxation mechanism, resulting in Albania losing 654.38+00 billion Canadian dollars in revenue. The Albanian government has taken boycott measures such as stopping the construction of oil sands projects and threatening to cut off oil and gas transportation in the east. Under the influence of international and domestic double pressures and falling world oil prices, the Canadian government was forced to cancel NEP in 1985, and began to gradually relax the control of the energy market and reduce the restrictions on the ownership of the energy sector, and turned to a market-oriented energy policy focusing on promoting the prosperity of the oil and gas industry.
Today, how the Canadian federal government participates in the supervision of the energy market is still a sensitive issue in Canada's domestic politics. Affected by the failure of NEP, the federal government has not issued any policy or guidance on energy ownership since then, fearing that it will cause speculation and worry about the resource rights of provinces. However, with the development of PetroCanada as one of the five comprehensive oil companies, with the fourth oil reserve, the third upstream chain capacity and the second downstream chain refining capacity, and the development of its own oil industry (exploration, development, equipment manufacturing and research and development), the overall proportion of foreign capital in the fuel industry has gradually declined. In 2000, foreign capital accounted for 4 1.7% of gas assets, and the ownership problem was no longer like 20%. Energy trade has been brought into Canada-US Free Trade Agreement and North American Free Trade Agreement, and Canada's oil industry has entered a period of prosperity and development. At the same time, the increasingly prominent environmental and climate change problems in the 1990s increased the global social and environmental responsibility of the Canadian government, signed and ratified the Tokyo Protocol, and began to implement the sustainable development strategy.
1after the failure of NEP policy in 1985, the Canadian government almost gave up its control over the energy field, and the development of the whole industry was mainly guided by the market, and Canada's oil exports increased substantially. In the1980s, the increasing economic integration between Canada and the United States requires that energy trade be brought into the free trade system. Finally, the energy trade is written into the sixth chapter of NAFTA, and the restrictions on energy import and export, export tax and other measures between the three parties are cancelled. Canada's oil and gas exports to the United States have made great progress. By 1999, Canada has become the largest supplier of oil, gas and electricity in the United States, with oil and gas supply accounting for 10% and 16% of the US demand respectively. Since the signing of 1989 Canada-US Free Trade Agreement, Canada's oil exports to the United States have tripled and are currently1630,000 barrels per day; Natural gas exports to the United States have increased 2.5 times, and now it is 3.9 trillion cubic feet per year. The North American Free Trade Agreement promotes the integration of Canada-US energy market, which is embodied in the fact that the North American Free Trade Agreement prohibits Canada from providing Canadian consumers with energy prices lower than those of American consumers, and Article 605 of Chapter VI also prohibits Canada from reducing its energy supply to the United States unless it simultaneously reduces a certain proportion of its own energy supply.
The NAFTA energy clause not only guarantees Canada's access to the oil and gas market in the United States, but also actually guarantees Canada's energy supply to the United States. In particular, Canada's oil sands reserves of 654.38+075 billion barrels, second only to Saudi Arabia, will play a more important role in the future international energy market. With the surge of international crude oil and the continuous maturity of oil sands refining technology, oil sands have become an important strategic resource in Canada. It is estimated that by 20 10, about 45 billion Canadian dollars will be invested in new oil sands projects and the expansion of existing projects. In recent years, the Canadian federal and provincial governments have shifted their focus to attracting foreign investment in oil sands projects. Frame, the new finance minister, recently introduced the potential of the oil sands project when introducing Canadian investment environment to American and British enterprises. International oil companies have also invested in oil sands projects in Canada, and the proportion of foreign oil and gas assets has increased from 4 1.7% in 2000 to 44.9% in 2004. It is expected that the Canadian government's energy market policy will be biased towards promoting the development and production of oil sands projects in the future.
Another major change in Canada's energy policy in the 1990s was that it began to pay attention to environmental and climate change issues, signed the Kyoto Protocol, implemented the sustainable development strategy, and encouraged the development of alternative energy sources and energy conservation. Canada is the seventh largest consumer of basic energy in the world, with per capita energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions in the forefront of the world, and the energy industry accounts for 80% of carbon dioxide emissions. In the face of increasingly serious air pollution and climate change, Canada's social and environmental responsibilities in the world have increased. The government signed and ratified the Kyoto Protocol, with the goal of reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 5.2% from the level of 1990 by 2008-20 12. However, since Canada signed the Kyoto Protocol, there have been voices of opposition in China (mainly from the western energy industry), believing that this will make Canada's energy industry lose its competitive advantage. At present, the attitude of the new Conservative government towards the Kyoto Protocol has also wavered, saying that the government is discussing new methods and policies to deal with environmental pollution and climate change. In the 1990s, the Canadian government began to implement the sustainable development plan in the field of natural resources, and promulgated a series of very strict standards and regulations for environmental protection and energy conservation, and at the same time gave financial and tax policy support to the development of alternative energy.
To sum up, the evolution of Canadian government's energy policy has gone through several stages: development in the 1960s, national security in the early 1970s and 1980s, market prosperity after the mid-1980s, and environmental protection since the 1990s. However, the sensitive issue of ownership and control of energy resources runs through the whole process of energy policy formulation, during which foreign governments and capitals wrestle with Canadian governments and enterprises and domestic politics.