Labour / Migration

Oil sands ‘back in black,' crude nears $70
Nathan VanderKlippe
Calgary — Globe and Mail Update, Wednesday,
Jun. 03, 2009

Surging oil prices and tumbling construction costs have pulled Alberta's stalled oil sands across a major threshold to future profitability, creating new expectations that a comeback may not be as far away as once feared.

Declines in the cost of steel and labour have combined with crude prices that yesterday neared $70 to bring the oil sands “back in black,” said UBS Securities analyst Andrew Potter.

ALBERTA IN TIE-UP WITH OPEC
Province will get voice in energy discussions
Claudia Cattaneo, Financial Post
Published: Monday, May 25, 2009
Chris Schwarz, Canwest News Service

For the first time, Alberta and the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries have established an official relationship. It's a new strategy with big implications, including potential investment by OPEC members in Canada's oil sands.

Groups unhappy with Chevron expansion
May 20, 2009
By Wayne Freedman

There may be a refinery upgrade in Richmond, but if environmental groups have it their way, it may never happen. This is frustrating Chevron.

"Well the whole intent of the project is to help modernize the refinery," said Chevron spokesman Dean O'Hair.

But the intent of lawyers was to delay it. There was wrangling in Superior Court after a ruling rejected an environmental impact report from Chevron and the city of Richmond. The court called it "unclear and inconsistent."

Oil sands crucial to energy mix: Imperial CEO
By Claudia Cattaneo, Financial PostMay 15, 2009
Canwest News Service

CALGARY -- Canada’s oil sands represent such a large part of the remaining world oil resources it’s unrealistic to exclude them from North America’s future energy mix, said the CEO of Imperial Oil Ltd.

Despite a push to stop or contain their development, Bruce March said Alberta’s deposits represent 40% of known oil resources in the world that are not under the control of national oil companies.

PUC extends deadline for filing in pipeline case
Published May 21 2009

The state Public Utilities Commission has extended a deadline to apply for party status in a case involving an oil pipeline in western South Dakota, but did not extend the deadline as much as one advocacy group requested.

Dakota Rural Action had requested that the PUC extend the deadline to file for party status to June 10, almost a month past the original deadline of May 11. The PUC on Wednesday announced it will extend the deadline, but only until May 31.

By: Austin Kaus, The Daily Republic

Crude oil leak at Burnaby Mountain tank contained: Kinder Morgan
May 7, 2009 |
CBC News

Some Burnaby residents awoke to the strong smell of oil fumes after about 200,000 litres of crude oil spilled from a storage tank on Burnaby Mountain on Wednesday night.

The leak at the Kinder Morgan tank farm just east of Vancouver was spotted at about 10 p.m. by a contractor, the company said. The oil was captured in a lined containment bay surrounding the tank, and there were no leaks into the surrounding environment, the company said.

The Six Ways to Play Canada’s Oil Sector
By Martin Hutchinson
Contributing Editor
Money Morning

With oil finally trading back above the $50-a-barrel level, it’s time to recognize that crude prices are probably not going to remain low for very long, and may end up fluctuating in the $50-$80 range - regardless of what happens to the prices of other commodities.

As Calif. aims at carbon, Canada sees itself in bull's-eye
By COLIN SULLIVAN AND DEBRA KAHN, Greenwire
New York Times
Published: April 30, 2009

Canadian oil exporters fear that a low-carbon fuel standard adopted by California last week threatens to upset a thriving North American trade in petroleum if the regulation spreads throughout the United States.

The stench of reality
The Gazette
Saturday, April 25 2009

The tar sands suddenly are a root metaphor for every pressing issue we face both as Canadians and as members of the human species, writes The Gazette's William Marsden in his essay The Perfect Moment. Here is an excerpt:

Apparently buying out Petro Can wasn't enough...!

--M

Suncor Posts Second Straight Loss After Oil Plunges
04/ 23/ 2009
By Gene Laverty

April 23 (Bloomberg) -- Suncor Energy Inc., the oil-sands producer that agreed last month to buy Petro-Canada, posted a second straight quarterly loss after the global recession dragged down crude prices.