International Oil & Gas is a category for stories relating to tar sand production or climate change but not in any of the projects already listed geographically. This includes other regions of the planet with horrible environmental and high energy costs that, like the tar sands, are only a "choice" because of high prices and the global depletion of easily recoverable oil reserves. Such issues as the threat of war on Iran, "instability" in Iraq and Venezuela or disasters like Katrina will all drive up oil prices, which in turn doubly encourages tar sand production-- by price demand and energy demand.
Stock markets and global oil interests (including war) would be included here, as would attempts to get oil out of high risk, low return areas from oil shale in Colorado, to natural gas and heavy oil in the high eastern Arctic. The tar sands are part of this trend and should be seen as such. What happens with the tar sands will have a tremendous impact on what kind of choices are made elsewhere, environmentally and socially.
Koch brothers go deep in Alberta tar sands
Few people know how central this country's oil riches have been to the U.S. Big Oil billionaires' vast fortune. Most of their tar sands holdings remain untouched, but that may soon change.
by Bruce Livesey for NationalObserver.com
May 6, 2015
Fort McKay, Alberta, a hamlet of 700 citizens, hugs the Athabasca River a half-hour's drive north of Fort McMurray. It's home to the Fort McKay First Nation band.
Cutting the crud: Debunking five Big Oil myths
By Steve Cornwell
| March 12, 2015
The Harper government and Big Oil have been spouting some colourful myths about how vital the tar sands industry is for Canada. The jobs! The money! The environment!
Can't we just cut the crud and get down to the dirty truths? Why yes we can.
Let's debunk the five biggest myths about the tar sands.
Myth #1: The tar sands industry is great for Canada -- look at all those jobs it creates!
Consider the right wing source and revel in the take down of Stephen Harper.
--M
Canada Losing $30+ Bn a Year on Tar-Sands Oil
April 8, 2015
By Sprott Money
Oil is our most-precious commodity as fuel for the global economy. It is also becoming a scarce commodity, as global production has flattened, while global demand continues to climb relentlessly, everywhere in the world except for the dying economies of Europe and North America. It is a classic “seller’s market.”
While We’ve Been Debating Keystone, The U.S. Has Grown Its Pipeline Network By Almost A Quarter
by Katie Valentine Posted on March 16, 2015
Americans have been waiting for the federal government to come to a decision over the Keystone XL pipeline for more than six years, enduring countless protests, Congressional hearings and even a Presidential veto over the controversial project.
But during that time, pipeline construction in the U.S. hasn’t slowed — in fact, it’s surged.
Koch company buys up more oil sands licenses in Canada
Jenny Uechi
Mar 12th, 2015
Koch Oil Sands Operating ULC is buying up more licenses in Alberta's oil sands, Oilsands Review reported today.
"Bulletin records show that 15 licences were issued on March 3, 2015, for operator Koch Oil Sands in the Cadotte area," the Review reported.
Oilsands leases comprised $21 million of the $44.67 million generated by Alberta's Wednesday land sale.
Cut costs or face ‘death spiral,’ CNRL warns oil sands
PETER SCOWEN
FORT McMURRAY, ALTA. — The Globe and Mail
Published Thursday, Feb. 19 2015
The president of one of Canada’s biggest oil and gas producers delivered a stern warning to the oil sands industry, telling a room full of Fort McMurray business people that they need to start cutting costs or the industry will fall into a “death spiral.”
The “made in Fort McMurray cost” of doing business has risen too quickly and must end, Steve Laut of Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. told members of the local Chamber of Commerce.
Koch brothers' tar sands connection revealed
U.S. billionaire duo's huge stake in northern Alberta fields more than Conoco, Exxon and Chevron put together
by Enzo DiMatteo
March 4, 2015
A map released by the San Francisco-based International Forum on Globalization (IFG) shows that the U.S. billionaire Koch brothers own more of the Alberta tar sands, some 890,000 hectares (2 million acres), than oil and gas giants Exxon, Chevron and Conoco combined.
New hopes that tar sands could be banned from Europe
Landmark EU fuel quality directive gets a reprieve, opening the way for more-polluting tar sands oil to be taxed at a higher rate effectively pricing it out of the market
Arthur Neslen in Brussels
Thursday 19 February 2015
A landmark directive with the potential to ban tar sands oil from Europe has been reprieved, the Guardian has learned.
The EU’s most senior energy official confirmed that the fuel quality directive (FQD) to encourage greener road fuels will not be scrapped at the end of the decade, as had been thought.
Shell hits back at 'carbon bubble' claims
Oil and gas company publishes 20 page document telling investors that climate laws will not leave it with 'stranded assets'
John Vidal
theguardian.com, Tuesday 20 May 2014
Climate Change and Cultural Adaptation in Coastal Louisiana
Facing the Rising Tide
by JULIA KOPPEL MALDONADO
May 20, 2014
