Sleepwalk With Me

Take two facts, add some Chinese herbal tea leaves, let simmer, and, sleepwalk through this thought process ....

Sleepwalk, Santo and Johnny
These are the two facts:

• Canada has a lot of land-locked oil in Alberta, the "Canadian oil sands" --
• The Arctic Ocean is thawing and the sea lanes are opening --

Add the Chinese tea leaves:

• The Keystone XL is dead --
• TransCanada has a huge natural gas pipeline project in the works to the Arctic --
• China needs oil --
• Canada and China have a long history of partnering -- 

Back on May 4, 2013,  I wrote:

TransCanada has a huge natural gas pipeline system in this area and at least two natural gas pipeline projects in the works to take natural gas to the western and northwestern coasts of Canada, the Coastal Gas Link Pipeline Project and the Mackenzie Gas Project, which I suppose could be converted to oil pipelines if necessary. Activist environmentalists in Canada might be successful stopping a crude oil pipeline paralleling the Coastal Gas Link which goes through the Canadian Rockies. A crude oil pipeline along the Mackenzie Gas pipeline would be incredibly expensive and would take several years to plan and build. 

I am wrong about taking several years to plan and build: see "Big Inch and Little Inch."

With regard to financing, it is just very possible, the Chinese would be willing to help finance this project.

Other related links: Of all the players, only the US has no policy with regard to the Arctic.