Last month a group of pension funds and asset managers filed a resolution asking Royal Dutch Shell to reconsider its controversial involvement in the dirty tar sands.

And now the investors are targeting BP asking it not to invest a massive $10 billion in its Sunrise tar sands development.
Continue reading ‘Now BP Faces Shareholder Revolt Over Tar Sands’

WTI Meltdown on Friday Feb. 05 2010

Two stories from Canada’s Globe and Mail this week highlight the emerging reality that the oil industry in North America is downsizing; although the commentary mostly misses the underlying trend that is staring it in the face.

Firstly, the G&M highlighted an analyst note from Toronto-Dominion Bank, which warned of a glut in oil supplies due to falling demand in OECD countries and a surge in supply, as new projects come on stream while many OPEC suppliers are failing to stick to quotas. The effect according to TD will be to hold down prices. Not good news for expensive tar sands oil. Continue reading ‘Big oil’s race to the bottom is underway and tar sands producers have a head start’

Various blogs on the site over the last few months have warned about what peaking global demand will do for the oil industry.

Last August in the blog “What About the Demand-Side Warning?” we quoted Lorne Stockman, the author of report on how reducing oil demand might affect the tar sands. Continue reading ‘BP: Peak Demand Will Happen Before Peak Supply’

When we talk about wars for oil, the first and second Gulf wars spring to mind. First it was Kuwait and then Iraq.

But cast your minds back even further to the Falklands conflict in the eighties. You could ask the question was Margaret Thatcher’s defining conflict about securing British sovereignty for the Islanders or was this ever about the Falklands’ rich resources? Continue reading ‘Falklands Oil Row Escalates’

Timing, they say, is everything. Click on a copy of Canada’s National Post and one of the banner adverts today is from Shell talking about the “New Energy Future”.

Part of Shell’s “new Energy Future” is the Canadian tar sands, where it has been investing heavily (although it may be shifting direction again back to more conventional oil and gas reserves).

The company has always defended the environmental impact of tar sands and its record in Canada. Continue reading ‘Canada’s Reputation “At Risk” Over Tar Sands’