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Asian investment in Canadian oil sands seen to return in new form in 2014

Asian investment in Canada’s oil sands sector, which plummeted this year, will gain momentum in 2014, with sovereign wealth funds rather than state- owned enterprises taking the lead, industry officials said late Wednesday. Total investments in Alberta’s oil sands sector totaled $30 billion in 2012 before falling to about $1 billion in 2013, according to the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers. The decline followed a federal government investment guideline issued in late 2012 that restricted majority ownership of Canadian oil sands producers by foreign oil companies, barring “exceptional” circumstances, said Peter Glossop, a partner with Osler, Hoskin and Harcourt, at the 12th Annual Oil Sands Symposium in Calgary. December 7 will be the first anniversary of that announcement and what the industry has seen since is Asian state-owned enterprises, or SOEs, have stopped buying into Alberta’s oil sands sector, he said. “The word […]

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Oil and gas industry sues Colorado cities over fracking bans

A legal battle is brewing between the oil and gas industry and Colorado cities that have voted to ban shale gas extraction, raising questions about whether local governments, with the support of residents, can lawfully prohibit the controversial practice of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking. The Colorado Oil and Gas Association  (COGA) filed a lawsuit Tuesday against the towns of Lafayette and Fort Collins, Colo., which have passed ordinances prohibiting fracking, a gas-extraction process through which sand, water and chemicals are pumped into the ground to release trapped fuel deposits. Environmentalists argue that fracking can contaminate local water supplies and cause other ills, like increasing the output of climate-changing greenhouse gases. In September, environmental groups warned of potential contamination by ruptured oil and gas industry infrastructure as Colorado reeled from devastating floods . Laurie Kadrich, a city official in Fort Collins,  told Bloomberg news  that the lawsuit did not come as […]

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Pickup in Demand Fuels Gasoline

Gasoline prices are rising as the holiday season kicks off, as stronger demand in the U.S. and elsewhere takes a bite out of fuel supplies. Gasoline futures, which tend to dictate prices at the pump, are up 7.6% in the past month, to $2.7192 a gallon on Wednesday. U.S. retail prices average $3.26 a gallon, up eight cents from a 33-month low in mid-November, according to automobile club AAA. Economists and consumers are watching gasoline prices ahead of the Christmas-shopping season. Subdued fuel prices in past months have boosted consumer confidence and left drivers with more disposable income. But as prices rebound, higher fuel expenditures could crimp pocketbooks. Holiday driving is one factor behind rising prices. More motorists hit the road on Thanksgiving and during the stretch from Christmas to New Year’s Day than on any other U.S. holidays, according to AAA. Also, gasoline prices fell so low earlier […]

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Moving Crude by Railcar Stalls on the Track

Companies that thought they had found a relatively easy way to move crude from the booming oil fields of North Dakota to the West Coast are encountering obstacles. Half a dozen companies are trying to build rail terminals on the coast of Washington state to receive trainloads of crude from the Bakken field in North Dakota. The oil would then be transferred to ships and barges that could carry it to refineries in the Pacific Northwest or south to California. Analysts say regulatory hurdles make it difficult to build the necessary rail yards and tank farms in California, and it’s more expensive to ship crude there. But getting a permit in Washington is proving more challenging than companies expected. Targa Resources Partners NGLS -0.75% Targa Resources Partners L.P. U.S.: NYSE $ 50.46 -0.38 -0.75% Dec. 4, 2013 4:03 pm Volume (Delayed 15m) : 301,209 AFTER HOURS $ 50.46 0.00 […]

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NRDC challenges latest report on global warming

Dan Lashof, director of the climate and clean air program at the Natural Resources Defense Council, said now is not the time to relax over global warming. “The warming signs are unmistakable and we have the know-how to heed them,” he said in a statement Tuesday. “The world needs to come together, quickly, to take serious actions to slow, stop and reverse climate change.” Lashof was reacting to a report from former U.S. space agency director James Hansen , now with Columbia University, that said the international community should work for no more than a 1 degree Celsius temperature, or about 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit, increase above preindustrial levels to keep future generations safe from the effects of climate change. That’s in contrast to an assessment from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which said 2 degrees Celsius is the threshold. Hansen’s paper, published on […]

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USGS finds substantial shale gas potential in Denmark

WASHINGTON, Dec. 4 (UPI) — The U.S. Geological Survey said the Alum shale reserve area in Denmark holds an estimated 6.9 trillion cubic feet of technically recoverable natural gas. The USGS study of Denmark is its first-ever assessment of the shale natural gas potential there. The results of the study were delivered Tuesday to the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland, which provided data to the USGS. The Alum shale area consists of an offshore and onshore section, with the latter accounting for the bulk of the estimated reserves. USGS said it doesn’t believe the area contains significant quantities of oil. Shale oil and natural gas extraction in North America has redefined the dynamics of the international energy market in part because the U.S. and Canadian economies are relying less on foreign energy reserves. USGS Acting Director Suzette Kimball said the Alum shale may be a potential reserve basin […]

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BP pushes technical limits to tap extreme fields

BP’s strategy after the Deepwater Horizon tragedy: Go deeper. BP is leading an industry-wide push to develop technology that can retrieve oil from formations that are so deep under the sea floor, and under such high pressure and temperature, that conventional equipment would melt or be crushed by the conditions. One BP field in the Gulf of Mexico, called Tiber, makes the Macondo field that the Deepwater Horizon rig was probing look like simple puddle of oil. It is thought to hold twenty times the amount of oil as Macondo. At 35,000 feet below the sea floor – 6.6 miles into the earth’s crust – it is about twice as deep. There’s an extraordinary amount of oil in similar discoveries around the world, several of which are controlled by BP. But BP first must figure out how to get it. New equipment, including blowout […]

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Canadian Natural Upgrader Cost Increases by Almost 50%

Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. (CNQ) said a 50,000-barrel-a-day oil-sands plant backed by the Alberta government will cost C$8.5 billion ($8 billion), almost 50 percent more than estimated previously, and be delayed. The startup date of the Sturgeon upgrader and refinery in Redwater, Alberta, will be pushed back to September 2017 from mid-2016. Both Canadian Natural and the Alberta government have agreed to inject further capital in the form of debt financing into the project, according to a company release. “The project remains a good deal for taxpayers,” Alberta Energy Minister Ken Hughes said in an e-mailed statement. “With the persistent discount on bitumen — the bitumen bubble — and equally persistent high prices for transportation fuels, we continue to expect a better return for Albertans’ barrels of bitumen through this enterprise than if we simply took the royalties in cash.” The Alberta government receives a portion of its oil […]

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Snow Falls by Foot in Minnesota as Texas Braces for Ice

Snow fell by the foot across the Upper Great Lakes and Northern Plains as winter storms threatened to coat highways, power lines and trees with ice as far south as Texas . As much as 10 inches (25 centimeters) of snow was forecast in Minneapolis, according to the U.S. National Weather Service, with 40 inches possible on the coastline of Lake Superior northeast of Duluth as the storm moves into Canada. In Texas and Oklahoma , a half-inch of ice may affect electricity and transportation. “Significant travel impacts are possible during this event,” the weather service said in a winter storm warning for Dallas and Fort Worth. “Ice accumulations may make road surfaces impassable at times through Friday afternoon.” The storms are being fueled by a blast of arctic air that has gripped much of western Canada and is spreading through the U.S., […]

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High Winds Batter Scotland as Hamburg Braces for Storm Tides

Winds of up to 90 miles an hour and heavy rain are battering Scotland and England , disrupting road traffic and rail services, as northern Europe braces for heavy storms sweeping across the North Atlantic and the North Sea. Authorities issued severe flood warnings for northern parts of the U.K. as gales spread across the region. ScotRail suspended all rail services, sending trains to the nearest station to allow passengers to disembark safely. The airport in Hamburg, Germany’s main export hub, canceled 17 takeoffs and landings while authorities prepared for storm tides and monitored ships entering the Elbe estuary. A low pressure system dubbed Xaver may reach hurricane force with wind speeds of more than 140 kilometers (87 miles) an hour as it traverses southern parts of the North Sea before reaching landfall on the northern German and Danish coast around noon today, according to the German Weather Service […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple