Economics

This project should likely become a lightening rod against Sag-D production as it is also one of the dirtiest in history, as it uses a gunk it calls "asphaltene"-- the left over crap from the Sag-D project. This produces vastly higher GG emissions, which are already on average 3-4 times higher than in regular oil in tar sands production, and slightly more in Sg-D production. This plant is only 8 kilometers from the indigenous and Metis settlement of Anzac.

--M

Long Lake tar sands project on track for first production later this month

September 2, 2008 - 21:58

COMMENTARY: The Business of Water
Shrinking Water Supplies and Growing Energy Demands—an Emerging Strategic Headache
By David Hampton

The Sonora Desert in Mexico. Rising populations and increased energy demand are straining limited global water resources.

The energy industry's Mediterranean love affair
Eni's purchase of First Calgary Petroleums is another sign of the sector's plans for Algeria and Libya. And the competition is heating up
ERIC REGULY // Globe and Mail
September 9, 2008

ROME — Algeria and Libya have gone from no-go countries to the hottest of the oil and gas hot spots in only a few years.

What $300-a-Barrel Oil Will Mean for You
Charles Maxwell, Senior Energy Analyst, Weeden & Co.
By LAWRENCE C. STRAUSS
AN INTERVIEW WITH CHARLES MAXWELL: He correctly predicted the recent price spike -- and he sees an eventual move to around $300 a barrel.

An urban legend to comfort America: crash programs will solve Peak Oil
Fabius Maximus

This is the second post in a series examining “urban legends” about energy that comfort Americans. Here we discuss the first of four comforting myths about unconventional and alternative energy sources. These are excuses for not doing the hard work of gathering information, analysis, planning, and executing programs necessary to prepare for the multi-decade transition through peak oil to the next era (whatever that will be). These four myths are:

Canada Stocks Slump Most Since January on Oil; Suncor Drops

By John Kipphoff

Sept. 2 (Bloomberg) -- Canadian stocks tumbled the most in seven months, as the biggest commodity sell-off since March dragged down oil and metal producers in the Standard & Poor's/TSX Composite Index by almost 6 percent.

Suncor Energy Inc. dropped the most in at least 15 years, leading the biggest one-day decline in energy shares since November 2001. Goldcorp Inc. slipped to a four-week low, sending raw-materials shares to the index's steepest retreat.

THE NEW SONG OF DAVID

The supreme prophet of Canada's environmental movement seems to be lowering his sights with a self-help book on how to reduce, reuse and recycle - even though 'I know we're heading straight over the cliff.' John Allemang asks David Suzuki what he's thinking.

JOHN ALLEMANG // September 6, 2008

High costs squeeze oil sands
Break-even price jumps 31%
Claudia Cattaneo, Financial Post // September 05, 2008

CALGARY -- As oil backpedalled again yesterday to a five-month low, oil sands projects are getting increasingly squeezed as soaring costs boost the break-even price.

A new report found the break-even oil price required by new mining projects in the oil sands has jumped to $85 a barrel, an increase of $20 or 31% in barely more than a year.

Warning: The author of this article is a well-known climate change denier, and advocate of wars of aggression around the planet. Nonetheless, it is interesting to read pro-war arguments for the West to use the tar sands as a weapon in their escalation of a new Cold War against Russia, which they actually claim is about "territorial integrity" and "Russian aggression". To hear advocates of the Empire (who just destroyed the "territorial integrity" of Yugoslavia and then Serbia itself? Who continues to wage war on the people of Iraq without provocation?

Call of the wild
By Sheila McNulty. Financial Times
September 5 2008