By Gordon Hoekstra, Vancouver Sun, January 5, 2012

Chinese energy companies, at one time eager to see the Northern Gateway project completed quickly so they could access production from the Alberta oilsands, are now taking a longer, more patient view, according to a China expert.

By Tracy Sherlock, Vancouver Sun, December 22, 2011

Copper, oil shine brightly among commodities

Tembec Inc says dissolving pulp one of its few Q3 highlights (Photograph by: Peter Battistoni, Postmedia News, Vancouver Sun)

The top picks for investors going into 2012 should be oil and copper, a commodity price expert said Wednesday.

Both commodities will remain strong throughout the New Year, said Patricia Mohr, vice-president, economics and commodity market specialist at Scotiabank.

Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, Telegraph, December 14, 2011

Chinese stocks are flashing warning signs. The Shanghai index has fallen 30pc since May. It is off 60pc from its peak in 2008, as much in real terms as Wall Street from 1929 to 1933. Photo: Reuters

China's credit bubble has finally popped. The property market is swinging wildly from boom to bust, the cautionary exhibit of a BRIC's dream that is at last coming down to earth with a thud.

It is hard to obtain good data in China, but something is wrong when the country's Homelink property website can report that new home prices in Beijing fell 35pc in November from the month before. If this is remotely true, the calibrated soft-landing intended by Chinese authorities has gone badly wrong and risks spinning out of control.

By PAUL KRUGMAN, New York Times, December 18, 2011

Consider the following picture: Recent growth has relied on a huge construction boom fueled by surging real estate prices, and exhibiting all the classic signs of a bubble. There was rapid growth in credit — with much of that growth taking place not through traditional banking but rather through unregulated “shadow banking” neither subject to government supervision nor backed by government guarantees. Now the bubble is bursting — and there are real reasons to fear financial and economic crisis.

Gillian Wong, Associated Press in Washington  Post, December 20, 2011

BEIJING — Thousands of people besieged a government office in a southern Chinese town Tuesday and blocked a highway to demand a halt to a planned coal-fired power plant because of concerns about pollution, protesters said.

Derek Burney & Eddie Goldenberg, Globe and Mail, Dec. 13, 2011

The handling of the Keystone XL pipeline process by the Obama administration serves as a loud wake-up call for Canada. While America remains our most important market, Prime Minister Stephen Harper has said that Canada should not be a “captive supplier” of energy for the United States. In light of global demand growth, it’s also in Canada’s national interest for Ottawa to act decisively to enable our oil and gas industry to diversify its customer base.

Justine Hunter, Globe and Mail, Nov. 10, 2011

On Dec. 22, 1854, the Snuneymuxw people signed a treaty that provided them with 668 blankets. In exchange, British settlers got to mine the rich coal seam in their territory.

By Scott Simpson, Vancouver Sun, November 11, 2011

A northeast British Columbia first nation chief confirmed Thursday that it rejects an $860-million, China-financed coal mine that was championed this week by Premier Christy Clark during her trade mission to Asia.

By Bryan Yu, Vancouver Sun, October 15, 2011

Merchandise exports from B.C. are a source of strength this year, despite a sluggish U.S. economy and a high currency, thanks to the province's trade with Asia.

Current dollar exports are up 14.1 per cent through August compared to the same period last year.

By Stephen Ewart, Calgary Herald, October 10, 2011

The aggressive push by China’s state-backed energy companies into the Canadian oilpatch continued Sunday when Sinopec International Petroleum agreed to pay $2.2 billion for Calgary-based conventional oil and gas producer Daylight Energy Ltd.

Rebecca Penty, Calgary Herald, October 5, 2011

Despite all the talk about Japan switching from nuclear energy and potentially requiring large amounts of natural gas for power, China is still the hungriest Asian market.

Enter North American liquefied natural gas.

Shawn McCarthy, Globe and Mail, Sep. 18, 2011

OTTAWA— Royal Dutch Shell PLC (RDS.A-N61.65-1.50-2.38%) is raising the stakes in the country’s contentious energy debate, warning that Western Canada’s shale gas boom will be short-lived without an urgent push to access Asian markets.

David Ebner, Globe and Mail, Sep. 21, 2011

VANCOUVER— Demand for coal, a key ingredient in steel-making, is faltering, a worrisome sign that industrial activity in Asia - a major driver of global growth - has weakened.

Nathan VanderKlippe, Globe and Mail, Sep. 01, 2011

CALGARY— Enbridge Inc. (ENB-T32.46-0.04-0.12%) has quietly garnered support from a powerful group of foreign interests for its controversial Asian export pipeline, as Chinese investors in Canada’s oil sands become increasingly bold in their ambitions to bring Canadian crude across the Pacific.

Carrie Tait, Globe and Mail, Jul. 20, 2011

China has agreed to make another multibillion-investment in Canada’s oil sands, this time striking a deal to buy OPTI Canada Inc., the struggling energy company that filed for bankruptcy protection last week.

NATHAN VANDERKLIPPE and CARRIE TAIT, Globe and Mail, Jun. 21, 2011

A multibillion-dollar natural gas deal between Encana Corp. and PetroChina International Investment Co. Ltd. has foundered amid unresolved issues over how to oversee the joint venture’s efforts to pull massive volumes of natural gas from the forest and muskeg of northeastern British Columbia.

By Chris Varcoe, Edmonton Journal, Postmedia News, May 30, 2011

We need fossil fuels, Alberta delegation to Shanghai told

DAVID EBNER, Globe and Mail, Mar. 30, 2011

A Chinese group is making a $1-billion bet on coal in British Columbia to secure a key raw material for its steel making industry, the latest in a series of moves this year by international companies to stake a claim on Canadian resources.

Gordon Hoekstra, Prince George Citizen, March 29, 2011

Two Chinese coal companies and a steel maker are working with a Chinese company based in Vancouver to develop hundreds of millions of dollars worth of unique underground mines in northern B.C. that will provide thousands of jobs.

Nathan Vanderklippe, Carrie Tait, Andy Hoffman, Globe And Mail, Feb. 09, 2011

PetroChina International Investment Co. Ltd. (PTR-N135.04-0.24-0.18%) has agreed to pay $5.4-billion in a natural gas investment with Encana Corp. (ECA-T30.45-0.28-0.91%) that promises to be the largest Chinese investment in Canadian energy assets.

Kevin Gallagher, guardian.co.uk, 6 January 2011

Instead of turning China's successful renewable energy industry into a trade row, the US should be boosting its own

To kick off 2011, the Obama administration has had the audacity to file suit at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) against China's policies to build green technologies.

BBC News, 01 January 2011

The first oil pipeline linking the world's biggest oil producer, Russia, and the world's biggest consumer of energy, China, has begun operating.

By ELISABETH ROSENTHAL, New York Times, November 21, 2010

Even as developed countries close or limit the construction of coal-fired power plants out of concern over pollution and climate-warming emissions, coal has found a rapidly expanding market elsewhere: Asia, particularly China.

By KEITH BRADSHER, New York Times, August 9, 2010

HONG KONG — Earlier this summer, Prime Minister Wen Jiabao of China promised to use an “iron hand” to improve his country’s energy efficiency, and a growing number of businesses are now discovering that it feels like a fist.

By SHAI OSTER, Wall Street Journal, May 4, 2010

BEIJING—China's growing appetite for imported coal has ignited coal prices and fueled deal making on the belief that the country, once a major coal exporter, will be a long-term buyer of foreign coal.