This year’s IEA World Energy Outlook (WEO) contains a startling peak oil prediction. In order to prevent climate change getting out of control, global demand for oil should peak by 2018 at only 1 million barrels per day (Mbpd) more than today’s demand level. While the IEA has been much criticized for denying peak oil … Read More
Author: Lorne Stockman
Tar Sands in Your Tank
This report reveals that petroleum products containing tar sands crude oil have been regularly entering the EU’s petroleum supply chain for some time, primarily through imports of diesel from the US Gulf Coast. If the proposed Keystone XL pipeline is built, bringing tar sands from Alberta to Gulf Coast refineries, the amount of tar … Read More
BP’s full steam ahead on tar sands; and the rest of us be damned!
In the course of the past month, BP tripled the number of tar sands projects it’s developing, from one to three. While it rocked the tar sands industry back in December 2007, with its announcement of a joint venture with Husky that reversed its 1999 decision to avoid tar sands projects, the following two years … Read More
Big oil’s race to the bottom is underway and tar sands producers have a head start
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 … Read More
“Shock waves of anxiety” over Shell’s tar sands move
Remarks made by Shell CEO, Peter Voser to the Financial Times Energy Editor that his company has “clearly scaled down” its plans for a massive expansion of tar sands production should send waves of anxiety through the Canadian oil industry and a serious rethink among energy security hawks in Washington. Since the middle of last … Read More