When oil prices crashed late last year, the high-cost and capital intensive tar sands sector took a hit. The industry had already been showing signs of weakness with underperforming stocks, project cancellations, and serious concerns about market access. But low oil prices have driven a whole new level of cost cutting and project delays.
extreme energy
Frozen Future: the gaps in Shell’s Arctic spill response
Shell is currently moving its drilling rigs to Seattle in anticipation of resuming its US offshore Arctic drilling programme in July. However, it is far from clear that Shell has adequate physical or financial plans to deal with the impacts of a major oil spill in this remote region.
Frozen Future: Shell and the US Offshore Arctic
Oil Change International, Greenpeace, and Platform – February 2015 Download Briefing On 29 January 2015, Royal Dutch Shell confirmed that it intends, subject to regulatory approval, to resume its US Arctic drilling programme at a cost for 2015 of at least $1bn. To date, Shell’s Arctic programme has been a failure despite capital expenditure in … Read More
Alberta’s Oil Sands: “No Missing Billions”
An Alberta government report has dismissed the notion that the Canadian state had failed to collect billions of dollars in royalties in previous years. Former Auditor General Peter Valentine, who authored the report also said the system for collecting economic rent from the oil and gas industry was “generally well-designed, if not always well-executed.”
WHO: “Climate Change Endangers Health”
Yesterday was World Health Day. To mark the occasion WHO Director-General Dr Margaret Chan warned “The core concern is succinctly stated: climate change endangers human health.” She continued: “The warming of the planet will be gradual, but the effects of extreme weather events — more storms, floods, droughts and heat waves — will be abrupt … Read More
Spy was “More Austin Powers than 007”
Was it his Palestinian scarf, his Armani jeans, designer shirt or his permanent tan that gave him away? But a spy who infiltrated the direct action group Plane Stupid in the UK, has been exposed after making a series of elementary errors that aroused suspicions.
NASA: “the target we have all been aiming for is a disaster – a guaranteed disaster”
One of the world’s leading climate scientists has warned that the EU and its international partners must urgently rethink targets for cutting CO2 because they have grossly underestimated the scale of the problem. In a startling reappraisal of the threat, James Hansen, head of the Nasa Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York, calls … Read More
Kazakhstan Considers Crude Export Tax
Kazakhstan is making the international oil majors twitchy by saying it may impose a crude oil export duty as soon as mid-2008 to stabilise supplies on the domestic market. According to the Deputy Energy Minister Lyazzat Kiinov, the government is due to discuss the energy ministry’s draft proposals tomorrow, and set a date for sometime … Read More
Iran to OPEC: Stop Oil Sales in Dollars
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is stirring the pot again. As the dollar continues to fall, he is urging OPEC members to form a joint bank and stop pricing oil trades in U.S. dollars. Ahmadinejad told OPEC Secretary General Abdalla Salem el-Badri the cartel “should establish a joint bank as well as having joint currency.”
Iraq Oil Laws Quietly Move on
Quietly working behind the scenes, negotiators are hammering out a new draft Iraq oil law after previous versions of the controversial legislation stalled. “Shortly, we’ll see a new draft which there is more common ground,” Abdul-Hadi al-Hasani, deputy chair of the Iraqi Parliament’s Oil, Gas and Natural Resources Committee, has told wire reports.