Economics

Big Oil Strike in Brazil has Tongues Wagging, but We Continue Towards Peak Oil

By Pedro Prieto, Tlaxcala. Posted May 7, 2008.

Since the 1980's, the world has discovered less oil than it has consumed every year.

note: This was translated from the Spanish original by Miss Machetera, proprietor of the Machetera blog.

The world press, especially the Western press and specifically the financial press, has jumped all over the headlines of the discovery of a huge oil field in Brazil's continental shelf.

Oil hits record near $127 as Iran mulls output cut
Reuters
May 13 2008

NEW YORK, May 13 (Reuters) - Oil surged to a record peak near $127 on Tuesday after OPEC producer Iran said it was studying a plan to cut output despite signs record-high prices are hurting consumer nations.
U.S. crude jumped $2.00 to $126.23 a barrel by 1:45 p.m. EDT (1745 GMT), after striking a record $126.98 earlier. London Brent crude rose $1.61 to $124.52 a barrel.

More Dollars for Gas and Oil Research
By 250 News
Monday, April 21, 2008 03:08 PM

The allocations for the $12 million dollars the Province promised in the latest budget for mineral and oil and gas research have been announced.

Geoscience BC will be getting $5.7 million for projects to enhance the exploration and development of oil and gas.

The money will be used for projects such as regional airborne geophysical surveys with a focus on the Horn River Basin, in thenorth east part of B.C. , one of the hottest areas in oil and gas rights sales.

Work- place deaths up 24%
154 Alta. workers died on job last year, 30 more than in 2006
Archie McLean, The Edmonton Journal
Published: Friday, April 18

EDMONTON - Alberta workplace deaths jumped 24 per cent in 2007, but injuries fell slightly during the same period, new provincial statistics show.

A total of 154 people died on the job or as a result of their work last year, which is up from 124 in 2006, which was a 15-year low. The government says the number of deaths last year is consistent with the rates from the past 10 years.

Imperial fears year delay to Kearl oilsands project
Claudia Cattaneo, Financial Post Published: Thursday, May 08, 2008

CALGARY -- Imperial Oil Ltd. said in Federal Court Thursday its $8-billion Kearl oilsands project faces a delay of a year or more if a key water permit pulled by the federal government isn't quickly re-instated.

"It took nine months to get this piece of paper," lawyer Munaf Mohamed, of Fraser, Milner Casgrain LLP, argued before Justice Douglas Campbell. "What

is sufficient in terms of the sting of the lash?

Scenes From the Tar Wars

NEWS: As Canada scrambles to dig up some of the world's dirtiest oil, a bush doctor
tracks mysterious diseases, poisoned rivers, and shattered lives.

By Josh Harkinson

May/June 2008 Issue

At a small airport in the northern Alberta town of Fort McMurray, a rickety,
single-engine Cessna hurtles off the ground with a roar. Dr. John O'Connor ignores
the shuddering fuselage, the tail wiggle, the steep climb above the spruce trees at
the end of the runway. For O'Connor, a bush doctor who has tended to some of

Dehcho Land Use Plan revisions increase development

Roxanna Thompson
Northern News Services
Published Thursday, May 01, 2008

DEH GAH GOT'IE KOE/FORT PROVIDENCE - A revised Dehcho Land Use Plan could be completed as early as this fall, according to members of the Dehcho Land Use Planning Committee.

The planning committee has been working steadily since last fall to resolve the differences over the plan between the Dehcho First Nations (DFN) and the territorial and federal governments, said Michael Nadli, the chair of the committee.

Dehcho Process at crossroads

Paul Bickford and John Curran
Northern News Services
Published Thursday, April 10, 2008

K'ATLODEECHE/HAY RIVER RESERVE - There was not a lot of optimism about the Dehcho Process coming out of last week's leadership meeting on the Hay River Reserve.

Deh Cho leaders were disheartened following a report on the negotiations with the federal government.

"I feel that Canada is negotiating in bad faith," said Jerry Antoine, interim grand chief of Dehcho First Nations (DFN), following the meeting.

One key area of concern is land selection.

From the article below: "Experts on agro-economics say biofuels production is
largely responsible for the current food shortages and soaring prices. The crisis,
according to them, is not going to end unless the rich countries change their energy
consumption patterns.

If rich nations stopped biofuels production this year, it would lead to a price
decline in corn by about 20 percent and wheat by about 10 percent within the next
two years, according to the International Food Policy Research Institute, a think
tank in Washington."

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More dead birds giving Oilsands a blackeye

May 05, 2008 - 7:25 am
Kevin Usselman & Bryce Kelley

The Alberta oilsands is coming under fire again after a loon was found dead
and two others in distress at the ConocoPhillips tar sands site over the
weekend.

A campaigner with Greenpeace says he received the tip about the loons on
Saturday. It's the second incident involving birds in the oilsands in about
a week.

Last week, 500 ducks were found dead on a tailings pond at the Syncrude
oilsands site. That's because the birds, were found in a pond that has high