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Researchers find 7,300-mile ring of mercury around tar sands in Canada

Scientists have found a nearly 7,500-square-mile ring of land and water contaminated by mercury surrounding the tar sands in Alberta, where energy companies are producing and shipping oil throughout Canada and the U.S. Government scientists are preparing to publish a report that found levels of mercury are up to 16 times higher around the tar sand operations, principally due to the excavation and transportation of the bitumen in the sands by oil and gas companies, according to Postmedia-owned Canadian newspapers like the Vancouver Sun . Environment Canada researcher Jane Kirk recently presented the findings at a toxicology conference in Nashville. The revelations add to a growing concern over the environmental impacts of the tar sands. Many environmentalists charge that the exploitation of the sands for oil will lead to an increase in carbon emissions , the destruction and contamination of land and water and health problems for Canadians. The […]

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Robert Rapier: The Cost of Production and Energy Return of Oil Sands

Today’s article continues the series covering my recent trip to the Athabasca oil sands around Fort McMurray, Alberta. This is an annual trip that the Canadian government hosts for energy journalists, and expenses for the trip were paid for by the Canadian government. Previous articles in this series include: Today I want to discuss in more detail the two companies that we visited on this trip: Canadian Natural Resources Limited  (NYSE: CNQ, TSE: CNQ) and  Cenovus Energy  (NYSE: CVE, TSE: CVE). I will detail the cost of oil sands production via the different methods these companies utilize, as well as the energy return on energy invested (EROEI) of extracting the bitumen. Canadian Natural Resources One of the visits we made on the trip was to Canadian Natural Resources’ (CNRL) Horizon Oil Sands Project. The project consists of surface oil sands mining, a bitumen extraction plant, and on-site bitumen upgrading that […]

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Canadian forecast assumes heavy oil will be transported

Canadian government analysts identified transportation as a major export uncertainty in the National Energy Board’s latest long-term supply and demand projections, but expect market forces to resolve the question, particularly for heavy oil , one of them told a Washington audience. “We don’t make specific assumptions about how it will be transported, although we see it moving by rail now to pipeline terminals,” said Abra Bhargava, who leads the Energy Integration Team at NEB’s Calgary headquarters, during a Dec. 6 presentation on the forecast at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. The analysts expect to take a closer look at long-distance rail transportation of diluted bitumen from Alberta’s oil sands in future forecasts, she said, adding, “We strongly believe the markets can function, and transportation will be found.” That assessment differs significantly from many US environmental organizations’ declarations that crude oil production from Alberta’s oil sands won’t grow […]

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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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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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Robert Rapier: How Alberta’s Oil Sands are Produced

Introduction I spent the first week of November in the heart of the Athabasca oil sands around Fort McMurray, Alberta. I was there as a guest of the Canadian government, which hosts annual tours for small groups of journalists and energy analysts. In the previous two articles, I covered some of the environmental issues arising from the development of the oil sands. In  Oil Sands and the Environment – Part I  I discussed greenhouse gas emissions, impacts on wildlife, and I touched upon water usage. I also detailed some of the work of  Pembina Institute  (PI), which is working to improve the environmental conditions as the oil sands are developed. In Oil Sands and the Environment – Part II  I covered the tailings ponds, water consumption, impacts to water quality, and impacts to indigenous people. Today I want to discuss the actual process of […]

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Canada’s Cenovus Energy Seeks to Cut Costs, Double Production in Less Than a Decade

Cenovus Energy Inc. aims to bring methods more common to the factory floor to Alberta’s oil sands in a bid to cut costs per barrel by up to half and double production in less than a decade. “What we want to do is take manufacturing techniques, where we use the same template over and over again, for [building] mostly the same surface facilities” for equipment needed to extract oil from deep underground, Chief Executive Brian Ferguson […]

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Canada's Cenovus Energy Seeks to Cut Costs, Double Production in Less Than a Decade

Cenovus Energy Inc. aims to bring methods more common to the factory floor to Alberta’s oil sands in a bid to cut costs per barrel by up to half and double production in less than a decade. “What we want to do is take manufacturing techniques, where we use the same template over and over again, for [building] mostly the same surface facilities” for equipment needed to extract oil from deep underground, Chief Executive Brian Ferguson […]

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Robert Rapier: Oil Sands and the Environment – Part II

Today I continue coverage of my recent visit to the Athabasca oil sands near Fort McMurray, Alberta. I was there as a guest of the Canadian government, which hosts annual tours for small groups of journalists and energy analysts. I will be covering multiple aspects of oil sands production in a series of posts. In last week’s post — Oil Sands and the Environment – Part I — I discussed greenhouse gas emissions, impacts on wildlife, and I touched upon water usage. I also detailed some of the work of Pembina Institute (PI), which is working to improve the environmental conditions as the oil sands are developed. Today’s article will discuss the tailings ponds, water consumption, impacts to water quality, and impacts to indigenous people. Tailings Ponds There are two primary ways of extracting bitumen from the oil sands. In situ production […]

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Working Around Keystone XL, Suncor Energy Steps Up Oil Production in Canada

Suncor Energy, Canada’s top petroleum producer, announced on Thursday that it would expand its oil production in 2014 by 10 percent in another sign that the Obama administration’s delay in approving the Keystone XL pipeline extension is not holding back growth in the western Canadian oil sands fields. “We’re set for a strong year of continued production,” Suncor’s chief executive, Steven W. Williams, said. The company announced a capital spending program of $7.45 billion for 2014, $477 million more than it had forecast earlier this year. Suncor, which is based in Calgary, produces oil and gas around Canada, and has operations in North Africa and the North Sea. But its oil sands operations are the main driver for the company. In the most recent quarter, its oil sands output rose 16 percent from the year before for a record of 396,000 barrels a day, nearly 20 percent of the […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple