Category: Tar Sands

A Canadian oil and gas trade group on Monday lowered its long-term outlook for oil-sands production by 400,000 barrels a day, or 7.7%, to 4.8 million barrels a day, citing higher costs and deferment of projects. The Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers also said overall oil production in Canada will likely rise from 3.5 million barrels a day in 2013 to 6.4 million barrels daily by 2030, which is 300,000 barrels below its forecast a year ago. The lowered estimate comes amid growing concern in Canadian industry and government circles that oil-sands output may be slowed by a lack of pipeline capacity and access to global markets beyond the U.S. "We really do need to see some of these [pipeline] projects get put in place over the next few years in order to enable this growth to happen," said Greg Stringham, vice president of oil sands and markets at […]

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A Canadian oil and gas trade group on Monday lowered its long-term outlook for oil-sands production by 400,000 barrels a day, or 7.7%, to 4.8 million barrels a day, citing higher costs and deferment of projects. The Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers also said overall oil production in Canada will likely rise from 3.5 million barrels a day in 2013 to 6.4 million barrels daily by 2030, which is 300,000 barrels below its forecast a year ago. The lowered estimate comes amid growing concern in Canadian industry and government circles that oil-sands output may be slowed by a lack of pipeline capacity and access to global markets beyond the U.S. "We really do need to see some of these [pipeline] projects get put in place over the next few years in order to enable this growth to happen," said Greg Stringham, vice president of oil sands and markets at […]

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Does the shelving of the Total SA Joslyn mine signal that the recent wave of oil sands investment has peaked? This past week, Total SA And their business partners  decided to shelve the Joslyn Mine project , which places $11 bn in oil sands investment into the “unlikely” category. As an economist, I always look at other informal indicators of macroeconomic trends. Some other informal indicators are pointing to a crest in the recent wave of oil sands investment. – The price of diesel at the pump is approaching its 2007 levels, which raises variable costs for operating machinery. – Multiple fatalities in oil sands projects as S-A-F-E-T-Y is trumped by P-R-O-D-U-C-T-I-O-N. – Companies shedding contract employees, layoffs or hiring freezes as corporations regroup. – House flipping is back in Calgary as more people enter the market to sell $600,000 duplexes. – More frequent instances of rude wait staff […]

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Total SA (FP) will cut 150 jobs at its Joslyn oil-sands project in Canada and delay a final investment decision as costs escalate and the company and partner Suncor Energy Inc. (SU) look for ways to make the project more profitable. “We just need to find ways to go further in cost effectiveness,” Andre Goffart, the president of Total’s Canadian business, said on a conference call yesterday. Oil-sands mining projects including the C$11 billion ($10.1 billion) Joslyn venture are “very capital intensive projects.” Oil-sands miners have struggled with rising costs in northern Alberta because of labor shortages and distance from equipment suppliers. Imperial Oil Ltd. (IMO) , the Calgary-based producer majority owned by Exxon Mobil Corp., last year boosted the cost of its Kearl project by 18 percent. The decision on Joslyn will save Total, France ’s largest oil producer, $3.9 billion in the next four years, Oswald Clint […]

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The Canadian unit of France’s Total SA said Thursday it will halt its nearly decadelong development of a major oil sands project and lay off at least 100 local staff, a move that highlights the challenges of multibillion-dollar investments in unconventional sources of crude oil. A final investment decision on the roughly nine billion Canadian dollar (US$8.3 billion) project in northern Alberta, known as Joslyn North, has been pushed back indefinitely, the company said. Total received approval from the provincial government in 2011 and had envisioned starting production at the 157,000-barrel-a-day open-pit surface mine by 2020, according to recent filings. "Joslyn is facing the same challenge that most of the industry world-wide [faces]," Total E&P Canada President André Goffart told reporters on a conference call. ""The costs are continuing to inflate when the oil price—and specifically the netbacks for the oil sands—are remaining stable at best, thus squeezing […]

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Norwegian energy company Statoil said Tuesday it wants to cut its carbon dioxide emissions from oil sands production, though there may be short-term spikes. Statoil operates oil sands production facilities primarily in Canada. It said its oil sands production declined "slightly" last year. The company said CO2 intensity should decrease as it introduces additional technology at its Leismer oil sands operations in Alberta, Canada. There may be spikes in the interim, however. The Norwegian company said in a report Tuesday about 69.7 kilograms of CO2 were produced per barrel of oil. That was higher than expected, the company said, but lower than the 72.7 kg of CO2 per barrel produced in 2011. "Our long-term CO2 targets for reduced carbon dioxide intensity in the production process, with 25 percent by 2020 and 40 percent by 2025, remain firm," Stale Tungesvik, Statoil’s manager in Canada, said in a statement . Tungesvik […]

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Researchers of an independent  report  on one of the largest ongoing oil releases in Alberta history say the provincial regulator and industry must do more to inform the public about the scale and impact of massive bitumen seepage in the oil sands. For nearly a year now, more than 12,000 barrels of bitumen mixed with water have seeped through several long cracks (some as long as 100 metres) in the forest floor near four wells owned by Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. (CNRL) in the Cold Lake region. To date, the Calgary-based company has spent nearly $40 million in cleanup operations that have involved the removal of 70,000 tonnes of earth. It also pumped 404,378 cubic metres of […]

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Suncor Energy Inc. ‘s fourth-quarter results missed expectations, and it cut its outlook for production this year due to lower projected output overseas even as its oil-sands production hit a record high. Canada’s biggest oil and gas company by market capitalization also announced some shareholder-friendly moves, including a 15% increase in its quarterly dividend and an expanded share buyback. Suncor had fourth-quarter net income of 443 million Canadian dollars ($399 million), or 30 Canadian cents a share, compared with a loss of C$574 million, or 38 Canadian cents, a year earlier. Year-earlier results included an impairment charge of close to C$1.5 billion related to its Voyageur upgrader project in Alberta. The latest results included C$340 million in impairment charges and other items, mostly related to Suncor’s operational limbo in Libya and Syria. Operating earnings slipped 1.5% to C$973 million, or 66 Canadian cents a share, in the fourth […]

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