Energy and how it is captured and consumed is barely viable in tar sands production. While the amount of oil in places such as the tar sands in Alberta or the Orinoco Belt in Venezuela may have deposits of similar size to the reserves of countries such as Saudi Arabia or Iraq, the return of new energy after expending energy in production is not even close. In Iraq, the process of using one barrel of oil generates 100 new barrels. In the tar sands, estimates of 3 to 1 and even as low as 1.5 to 1 have been made. Offsetting the net energy loss would require minimally 25-30 tar sands facilities for one Saudi plant operating at the same capacity.
Search Narrows for Pipeline Bomber
Second threatening letter sets eyes on Tomslake community.
By Greg Amos, 17 Jul 2009, TheTyee.ca
The investigation related to the six northeast B.C. pipeline infrastructure bombings is narrowing in on a small community near the Alberta border, where bloodlines lead back to Sudeten Germans expelled from western Czechoslovakia after World War Two.
Is the Mackenzie Pipeline dead?
Peter Foster
National Post
August 18, 2009
Here’s a thorny question to pose as Prime Minister Stephen Harper moves
about the Canadian North this week promoting Arctic sovereignty and
use-it-or-lose it development: is the Mackenzie Valley natural gas
pipeline dead?
A year ago, Imperial’s CEO Bruce March declared that he was as optimistic
about Mackenzie development as he had been “in five or six years.” As
recently as January, Minister of the Environment Jim Prentice was talking
Peace wants say on massive dam
Region wants consideration before any studies on $6-billion Site C
BY SCOTT SIMPSON, CANWEST NEWS SERVICE
AUGUST 19, 2009
Northeast British Columbia won't yield to B.C. Hydro's Site C mega-hydroelectric project without a fight.
Directors of the Peace River Regional District have voted to recommend the B.C. government reject Hydro's request to undertake geotechnical surveys of potential locations for the estimated $6-billion Site C dam and its reservoir.
Three energy deals, $78B
August 18, 2009
While there's been a frenzy of deals in the alternative energy market, fossil fuels still dominate the numbers when it comes to consumption and investment from companies such as Exxon Mobil Corp. (NYSE:XOM). Note these three deals involving China and Australia, Russia and Venezuela, and Iran and Malaysia.
Canadian Oil Sands Trust Q2 earnings plummet 91%
Carrie Tait, Financial Post
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Canada, ultradeep water assure US Gulf oil supply
Tue Aug 18, 2009
By Bruce Nichols - Analysis
HOUSTON (Reuters) - Growing volumes of crude oil from Canada and the Gulf of Mexico should assure U.S. Gulf Coast refiners adequate supplies for years to come despite fast-declining imports from Mexico and Venezuela.
Exxon boosts pipeline to oil sands by 50%
By Joe Carroll, Bloomberg
Aug 17, 2009
Exxon Mobil Corp., the world’s biggest oil refiner, boosted its capacity to transport crude from Canada’s oil sands to refineries in Texas and Louisiana.
Exxon Mobil increased the capacity of its 1,381-kilometre Pegasus Pipeline by 50% to about 96,000 barrels a day, the Irving, Tex.-based company said Wednesday in a statement.
Marathon delays Detroit refinery expansion project
Aug 05, 2009
DETROIT -- Marathon Oil Corporation, an integrated energy company, has announced that it is delaying the completion of the expansion of its Detroit refinery.
The company had earlier set the deadline for completion of the venture by mid-2012. It has not announced its new timeline for project completion.
The firm is upgrading the refinery to process 80,000 barrels of heavy oil per day.
© 2009 Electronic News Publishing
http://www.heavyoilinfo.com/marathon-delays-detroit-refinery-expansion-p...
Tunnel Below Miss. River Among Keystone's Biggest Challenges
by Dennis Grubaugh, The Telegraph, Alton, Ill.
Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News
August 11, 2009
It's the ultimate in drilling challenges -- a tunnel 50 feet under the Mississippi River bottom, traversing a distance of 3,705 feet.
For those boring the way for the new TransCanada Keystone Oil Pipeline it's just part of the job and not even the biggest challenge in this region. That honor lies on the northern end of Illinois' Carlyle Lake, where the pipeline will span a distance of 4,500 feet.
Nuclear power's sick legacy
By Helen Caldicott
The noted American writer Mary McCarthy once famously observed of the equally
noted but politically discredited playwright Lillian Hellman: "every word she
utters is a lie, including 'and' and 'but' ". As we have seen over the past
10 years, the same can be said of the Howard Government from the
children-overboard scandal to "there will never be a GST" to "yes, there are
weapons of mass destruction in Iraq". Now - joined by misguided and
misinformed members of the ALP and a few scientists who should know better -
