The backlash against increasing royalties in Alberta’s oil and gas sector continues. Canadian Natural Resources is warning that oil sands projects worth more than $20-billion could be shelved if proposals to increase royalties are fully adopted. It joins a chorus of dire warnings from the energy sector.
In the oil sands, Canadian Natural’s $7.6-billion Horizon mine […]

A year-long investigation by the US Department of Interior’s chief independent investigator has found that its program to collect billions of dollars from oil companies that drill on federal lands is troubled by mismanagement, ethical lapses and fears of retaliation against whistle-blowers.
It also suggested that the agency was too cozy with oil companies and that […]

A Canadian government-appointed panel reviewing Alberta’s energy royalties has called for the oil-rich Canadian province to increase its total take from the energy industry by 20 percent a year, or roughly $2 billion Canadian (US $1.97 billion).
The report by the provincial panel targets Alberta’s oil sands projects in particular and says royalties have not kept […]

A statement released June 1 by the US Government Accountability Office (the “investigative” arm of Congress), finds that “the US federal government receives one of the lowest government takes [from oil and gas development] in the world.”
The testimony, delivered to Congress on May 1 but only publicly released last Friday, indicates that while there are […]

Apparently there are no lengths to which Bush Administration officials will not go in defense of Big Oil. According to Congressional Quarterly, the Interior Department’s Inspector General will shortly issue a report revealing that Department officials, after learning in 2000 of mistakes in leases that could cost the American people $10 billion, proceeded to cover […]