Economics

Georgia Straight October 23, 2008

Author Andrew Nikiforuk fears tar sands undermine democracy

By Charlie Smith

A Calgary author and journalist says most Canadians don’t understand that
we’re living in a “petrostate” that could undermine our democracy. Andrew
Nikiforuk, author of Tar Sands: Dirty Oil and the Future of a Continent
(Greystone Books, $20), told the Georgia Straight in a phone interview that
Canada needs a national debate on the topic. “I think the tar sands has
created a political emergency for the country,” he said.

Hunker down, happy hour is over
October 16, 2008

Back in the summer, Randy Eresman, the meticulous engineer who runs the country's largest energy company, sat down in a brown leather chair and talked about how Breaking Up is Hard to Do. EnCana Corp.'s executive group was drawing two lists - who would stay, and who would go to the new oil spinoff. And it was tough.

"It's going to be a sad day when we actually end up splitting and moving people apart that have worked together for a very long period of time," he said.

Trillions of dollars' worth of oil
High Stakes in Canada’s Vast Oil-Sands Fields
George Tombs, The Christian Science Monitor

The relentless search for oil has led explorers to the boreal forest of northeastern Alberta, among the jack pines and black spruce trees an hour's drive from the boom town of Fort McMurray. Kelly Hansen, operations manager at ConocoPhillips's $1 billion Surmont oil-sands plant, holds up the prize: a beaker of sticky black “synbit,” a 50-50 blend of bitumen (a viscous, tarlike petroleum) and synthetic oil.

OIL SANDS-PART 3: Biggest Customer Has Second Thoughts
By Chris Arsenault*

FT. MCMURRAY, Oct 20 (IPS) - As Canada's tar sands extraction expands full steam ahead, a perfect storm of internal and external opposition could derail some of the voracious growth at the world's largest energy project.

Together, skyrocketing construction costs, falling crude prices, increasingly vocal opposition from some native groups, and a little known section of the 2007 U.S. Energy Independence and Security Act all threaten growth projections in northern Alberta.

Nexen, Opti delay decision on next oil sands phase
Mon Oct 20, 2008 1:22pm EDT

CALGARY, Alberta, Oct 20 (Reuters) - Nexen Inc and Opti Canada Inc have postponed a decision to expand their new Long Lake, Alberta, oil sands project, citing the financial market crisis and uncertainty over costs to curb carbon emissions, a Nexen official said on Monday.

The partners in the C$6.1 billion ($5.1 billion) development, which is now in start-up mode, had expected to decide by the end of this year whether to begin work on twinning the project.

Positive step forward for pipeline
Paul Bickford
Northern News Services
Published Monday, October 6, 2008

INUVIK - A major piece of the puzzle that is the Mackenzie Gas Project has fallen into place.

Access and benefits agreements have been reached between the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation and project proponents.
NNSL Photo/Graphic

Construction of the $16.2 billion Mackenzie Valley Pipeline is awaiting regulatory approval and the inking of access agreements similar to one signed by the Inuvialuit last week. - NNSL file photo

Hopefully this can begin a discussion about what activists resisting the largest project in human history and the second largest oil deposit on the planet will do when the state sees us as dangerously effective.

Shysters enslave foreign workers
By TOM GODFREY, SUN MEDIA
19th October 2008

Immigration officials are targeting a network of shady recruiters who are charging foreign construction workers huge fees for jobs that are available free in Canada.

The shysters are forcing workers to turn over their earnings and live like slaves after they arrive here.

Crude Profits
Saturday October 18, 2008
by Joshua Neuhouser

TransCanada work goes underwater
Saturday, Oct 18, 2008 - 12:45:47 pm CDT

YANKTON, S.D. - Crews are expected to begin working this week to bury pipe for the TransCanada Keystone oil pipeline 60 feet below the bed of the Missouri River at Yankton.

The project of 4-6 weeks will involve nearly a half-mile of 30-inch pipe.

The TransCanada underground pipeline will run from Canada through the eastern Dakotas and Nebraska to refineries in Illinois and Oklahoma.

Some pipe is already in place in northeast South Dakota.