Economics

World oil prices fall to $59
Lisa Wright
Business Reporter

Oil prices fell below $60 a barrel yesterday – and gasoline prices are tumbling too – but you may want to hold off on celebrating those sweet savings at the pumps.

Economists warn of the gloomier big picture: namely, that we're far from out of the woods when it comes to the global financial crisis.

And with oil and our coveted tar sands crucial to Canada's economy and prices continuing to fall, things are likely to get much worse before they get better, they say.

Oil-shale projects are going ahead in Utah — for now
By Jasen Lee
Deseret News
Published: Thursday, Nov. 13, 2008 12:09 a.m. MST

The falling crude-oil prices of recent weeks will have little impact on the current oil-shale and tar-sands boom going on in eastern Utah, according to companies now working to develop the resources in the Uintah Basin.

'They are flexing their muscles'

Companies want to mine a remote region of B.C., but, unlike some previous bands, the Tahltan insist on controlling access to the area

MARK HUME
mhume@globeandmail.com

September 27, 2008

VANCOUVER -- Between the abandoned mining town of Cassiar and the struggling port of Stewart, in the northwest corner of British Columbia, Highway 37 runs through one of the most dramatic and resource-rich landscapes in Canada.

Keep 'world's dirtiest fuel' out of Quebec, green groups say

Enbridge project. Tar sands oil would flow by pipeline from Alberta
The Gazette
Thursday, November 06

Environmental groups want the Quebec government to stop a plan that would ship the dirtiest kind of oil from Alberta's tar sands projects through Quebec to the U.S. East Coast and on to Texas - with some possibly being refined in Montreal's east end.

Harper Pledges Cooperation With Obama on Credit, Climate, Oil

By Greg Quinn and Theophilos Argitis

Nov. 6 (Bloomberg) -- Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper called U.S. President-elect Barack Obama's victory this week ``historic'' and pledged to cooperate with him on issues ranging from the financial crisis to climate change.

Canadian Natural's cuts a blow to oil patch
Company scales back Horizon spending as list of stalled oil sands projects grows; 'this environment is scary'

NORVAL SCOTT

November 7, 2008

CALGARY -- The bulk of the next phase of the oil sands is effectively on hold.

Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. slashed spending yesterday on its Horizon oil sands project, its biggest development ever, because of spiralling costs and lower oil prices, joining a long list of producers that have significantly scaled back or altered their plans.

TransCanada mum on Keystone XL spur into Bakken
By BLAKE NICHOLSON 10.31.08
BISMARCK, N.D. -

TransCanada Corp. says it has enough contracts with oil shippers to proceed with a second Keystone pipeline that would move crude oil from Alberta to the U.S. Gulf Coast, though it is mum on the possibility of a spur into western North Dakota.

The Keystone XL pipeline would enter the U.S. in Montana and run through South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas and Oklahoma on its 1,980 mile route to Texas. It would not cross any part of North Dakota.

World's Crudest Extraction
At the tar sands they’re digging up dirty fuel
November 8, 2008
by Macdonald Stainsby

The Dominion - http://www.dominionpaper.ca

EDMONTON, ALBERTA–When the Albertan government recently put forward $25 million to counter the negative press around tar sands mining, Premier Ed Stelmach strained credulity by stating: "In terms of David and Goliath, I've been in this position before, and now I'm here."

Brazil oilfield may house '100bn barrels'
By Jonathan Wheatley in São Paulo
Published: November 7 2008

Brazil's newly discovered "pre-salt" oilfields may contain more than
100bn barrels, Haroldo Lima, head of the industry regulatory, said on
Friday.

Mr Lima said just the pre-salt oilfields already under concession may
contain between 50bn and 80bn barrels and that the total area could
surpass 100bn barrels.

If so, the new fields would propel Brazil up the world league table of
oil producing nations. Brazil currently has reserves of about 12.6bn

Pipeline company opens office - Roger Harris

November 04, 2008 11:00 PM

A COMPANY proposing to transport oil through a multi-billion pipeline between Alberta and Kitimat will be officially opening their offices in Terrace and Kitimat next week.

Enbridge will use the offices in the two communities to inform the public about the project.

The project needs federal regulatory approval. Construction would require skilled workers.