CALGARY, Alberta (Reuters) – An Alberta study has found that crude from the province’s oil sands is no more corrosive to pipelines than conventional oil, but it points out there is no definitive peer-reviewed research on the issue, which has played a role in Keystone XL pipeline controversy.

A 29-page review of available data by Alberta Innovates, a government-owned research corporation, addressed warnings by environmental groups that crude from the northern Alberta oil sands was more damaging to pipeline walls in several different ways, increasing risks of oil spills.

The study found there are differences in the chemical makeup of the types of oil, but not necessarily in corrosive qualities.

The paper made several recommendations, including urging Alberta’s regulator, the Energy Resources Conservation Board, to start separating safety and operating statistics for pipelines that carry oil sands crude from those that ship conventional oil to allow better information gathering.

The paper, published this month, was written by Jenny Been, a specialist in Alberta Innovates’ corrosion-engineering and advanced materials section. It was prepared for John Zhou of the agency’s energy and environment solutions division.

It is not clear what weight the research carries and what the next steps are. Zhou and other officials at his division were not available for comment.

Corrosion fears were part of the controversy surrounding TransCanada Corp’s $7 billion plan to build the Keystone XL pipeline to Texas from the Alberta oil sands. The plan is now on hold after the U.S. State Department pushed back a go-ahead decision by more than a year. The issue has arisen with other projects aimed at shipping crude from the tar sands, the world’s third-largest oil deposit.

CALGARY, Alberta, Nov 23 (Reuters) – Imperial Oil Ltd does not expect to expand production capacity at the Syncrude Canada oil sands project in northern Alberta at least until 2020, breaking from the expectations of the other partners in one of the oil sands’ biggest operations.

Imperial is concentrating on improving reliability at the sprawling oil sands mining and synthetic crude processing development before moving forward with multibillion-dollar plans to boost output beyond the current capacity of 350,000 barrels a day, spokesman Pius Rolheiser said.

Imperial has a 25 percent stake in Syncrude, making it the second-largest interest holder. Imperial’s parent company, Exxon Mobil Corp , has managed the project since 2007.

“It would be premature of me to talk about specific project plans or timing or sequencing. However, Imperial is of the view that expansion will likely not happen before the end of this decade,” Rolheiser said.

The view differs from that of Canadian Oil Sands Ltd , the largest Syncrude owner with a 37 percent stake. In its current investor presentation, being shown to investors in Asia this week, it says it expects to increase capacity by 71 percent to 600,000 barrels a day by 2020.

Canadian Oil Sands says the expansion would start with a 50,000 barrel a day increase through “debottlenecking” equipment currently in use.

Imperial’s position also goes against the flow of most oil sands developers, which have captured and held investor interest in the face of rising costs, volatile oil prices and environmental opposition with the promise of production gains at regular intervals.

CALGARY, Alberta (Reuters) – A Western Canadian native group has filed a motion to delay hearings into Enbridge Inc’s C$5.5 billion ($5.2 billion) oil pipeline to the Pacific Coast, and says Ottawa is wrong in its assessment that the proposed project would bring economic benefits.

Coastal First Nations, a coalition of nine aboriginal communities near the terminus of the planned oil sands pipeline, have asked regulators to adjourn hearings before a scheduled January start so Enbridge can respond for a second time to its requests for information.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper and several officials in his government have identified Northern Gateway, which would open up a new supply route to Asia, as important to the country’s economic interests, especially after the United States imposed a delay on the Keystone XL pipeline to Texas.

The motion comes after brief talks in September with Enbridge Chief Executive Pat Daniel, but neither signal a softening in its opposition to the proposal, Coastal First Nations Executive Director Art Sterritt said.

The two sides had talked about wanting “fresh start” in relations, and Daniel had agreed to investigate if hearings before a joint review panel could be delayed, he said.

“We felt that the fresh start would provide us the opportunity to show Enbridge that the project should not go ahead,” he said. “That’s exactly why we wanted a fresh start with them. Coastal First Nations remains unequivocally opposed to Northern Gateway and our ban on tanker traffic on the coast remains in effect.”

Delaying the proceedings would allow discussions to take place without a looming deadline, he said.

CALGARY, Alberta (Reuters) – The U.S.-imposed delay of TransCanada Corp’s Keystone XL oil pipeline shows Canada’s energy industry cannot relax efforts to improve its environmental record, a former top minister in Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s government said on Monday.

The U.S. move has also helped build consensus that the oil industry must lessen its near-total export reliance on the U.S. market, said Jim Prentice, who left the Conservative government last year to become vice-chairman of Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce.

As environment minister in 2010, Prentice stirred some controversy in his home base of Calgary by telling an industry audience that the national and international perception of northern Alberta’s oil sands was “profoundly negative” and that companies developing the resource, the world’s third-biggest reserve of crude oil, must boost efforts to improve environmental performance.

“I think there’s been substantial progress made, but I think as events have unfolded, both in the United States on Keystone and on other issues, it highlights how important it is that Canada be not only a producer of energy, but an environmentally responsible producer of energy,” he said in an interview. “That has to be the space that we occupy.”

That will require constant investment in improving technology to reduce the oil sands’ impact on air, land and water, he said.

“It’s not a final destination that you can say we’ve reached and then just carry on. It doesn’t ever end, really,” he said.

This month, the U.S. State Department pushed back its review of TransCanada’s $7 billion Keystone pipeline to Texas from the oil sands by more than a year to study a new route away from the environmentally sensitive Sand Hills region of Nebraska.