Peak Oil is starting to be understood across a broad spectrum, but the direct connection between peak oil, climate change and the American market-led attempt to squeeze all energy out of Alberta cannot be overstated. The smaller the global supply of oil gets, the more CO2 has been emitted and the more climate change will have advanced. This leads to more interest in the tar sands—because the profit margin goes ever higher the fewer alternatives there are for petroleum. Without Peak Oil bearing down on humanity, no economical reason would exist to produce this energy intensive, low-output petrol.
Quick Sand: Credit Crunch and Falling Oil Hit Oil-Sands Projects
October 24, 2008, Wall Street Journal
Posted by Keith Johnson
From Canada, more signs that the oil industry is starting to feel pinched.
Two big Canadian oil-sands producers are delaying oil-production projects and scaling back capital expenditure. Suncor and Petro-Canada both pushed back plans to install “upgraders” that can turn tar sands into crude oil.
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.
Depressed Canadian oil giants ripe for takeover
Market Caps Down
Carrie Tait, Financial Post Published: Wednesday, October 15, 2008
CALGARY - Canadian oil and gas companies are ripe for becoming merger bait -and we're not talking about the small and medium-sized shops. The biggies -- Suncor Energy Inc. (SU/TSX), En- Cana Corp. (ECA/TSX), Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. (CNQ/TSX), Talisman Energy Inc. (TLM/TSX) and Nexen Inc. (NXY/TSX) -- could all be targets for the world's super biggies.
2 new oil refinery plans in the pipeline
Dirk Lammers, Associated Press
(10-12) 04:00 PDT Elk Point, S.D. --
The United States hasn't built an oil refinery on a new site in more than 30 years, but a pair of projects eyeing out-of-the way corners of South Dakota and Arizona are slowly working their way up to the big leagues.
Venezuela goes to natural gas cars
Compiled from Herald News Services
Saturday, October 11, 2008
Venezuela, the biggest oil exporter in the Americas, will trade gas-
guzzlers for new vehicles that run on natural gas and provide drivers
with natural gas for their cars for a year in a bid to boost gasoline
exports.
The old cars will be recycled and the country will profit from
increased fuel exports, President Hugo Chavez said Friday.
"We're going to exchange these mobile squanderers with a beautiful
modern family vehicle that uses gas that doesn't cost anything,"
Politicians vs. our last healthy industry
Mark Milke, For The Calgary Herald
Published: Friday, October 10, 2008
In a serendipitous release Wednesday, Statistics Canada published data on how much the oil and gas industry spends on extraction, i.e., getting oil and gas out of the ground so we can power our automobiles and heat our homes and offices, among other uses.
The numbers are staggering. In 2007, the industry spent $49.7 billion on capital expenditures. On the operating side, Canada's energy industry cut cheques worth $37.6 billion.
Ability of oilsands players to weather storm a question of timing: economist
The Canadian Press
October 10, 2008 - 12:44 a.m.
CALGARY - The ability of oilsands players to weather the recent economic tempest will in large part depend on timing, an economist says.
On Friday crude oil prices shrivelled to US$80 - break-even territory for many high-cost oilsands projects.
Derek Burleton of TD Economics says companies that started their projects a few years back will be in better shape, since their plans were based on crude prices not all that different from today's.
Next president could make huge oil sands deal with Canada
Posted: October 10, 2008, 11:13 AM by Jonathan Ratner
Energy
