The crude politics of oil sands is laid bare for all to see. Despite a court ruling stopping the oil sands project the Canadian government is giving Imperial Oil the green light to begin construction of its $8-billion Kearl oil sands mine.
In a notice yesterday, the government said the federal cabinet endorsed an environmental review […]

Happy World Environment Day! Not so in America, though. It may be the most polluting and dirty oil on the planet, but American refiners are tripping over themselves to make investments to dramatically increase imports from Alberta’s oil sands.
Figures released yesterday show that the oil industry is spending about $53 billion to expand or modify […]

Imperial Oil, Canada’s largest oil company, has lost a legal bid to overturn a federal regulatory decision that could delay the planned C$8 billion oil-sands project in Alberta.
The Federal Court ruled that the government acted properly to cancel a water permit because another court found flaws in an environmental report on the Kearl tar sands […]

EnCana Corp, Canada’s biggest energy company, is going to buck the trend in the oil industry of mergers, and split into two separate oil and natural gas firms in an effort to wring out more value with crude prices at record highs.
The new oil firm, worth about a third of the enterprise value, will operate […]

Another day, another court room battle concerning big oil. This time its oil sands in the dock. Imperial Oil’s (majority owned by Exxon) fight to win the right to drain muskeg at an oil sands project begins today in an Alberta courtroom.
At a time of intense public scrutiny of the region and the way the […]