ExxonMobil Votes With Feet To Stay In EU As Energy Laws Loom

Oil sands, also referred to as tar sands, generate more carbon dioxide than conventional oil over their life cycle, because of the extra energy required to extract them.

The new refining capacity at Antwerp will produce low sulphur diesel in line with EU clean fuel standards, but it has the capability to use Canadian oil sands, in whose exploration Exxon has a stake.

Exxon's Sepulveda says the aim is to ensure "refineries in Europe have equal access to the most economic feedstocks".

Environmental campaigners, however, say oil sands should be left in the clay-like deposits in which they are found.

Otherwise, EU or any other goals on curbing climate change will fail, they say, and the world will be unable to cap global warming at 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial times -- the limit scientists say prevents the most devastating consequences.

"Digging tar sands and other unconventional oil out of the ground is incompatible with the 2 degrees objective and will leave Exxon with a stranded investment," said Nusa Urbancic, a programme manager at Transport & Environment campaign group.

(Additional reporting by Alister Doyle in Oslo and Marcin Goettig in Warsaw; editing by David Clarke)