Long before the launch of this magazine—coincidentally, four years ago this issue—as a staff writer for our renowned sister publication, Oilweek, I got my first glimpse of the remarkable innovation that fuels the energy industry. There is a famous quote that does a tremendous job of summing up the value of this innovation, I think especially when it comes to unconventional oil.
“We usually find oil in a new place with old ideas. Sometimes, we find oil in an old place with a new idea, but we seldom find much oil in an old place with an old idea. Several times in the past we have thought that we were running out of oil, when actually we were running out of ideas.”
— Adapted from Parke A. Dickey, University of Tulsa petroleum geology professor, 1958
Sinopec’s $4.65-billion pitch to grab a nine per cent stake in the world’s single largest source of synthetic crude oil—Syncrude—has speculators running at full tilt on the potential implications of what would be the largest transaction of its kind in history.
This summer, if the group Peaceful Uprising has its way, activists will flock to Utah—some with the benefit of a $1,500 stipend—to protest a project that with the injection of $35 million would become the country’s first mining project producing oil from sand. Last fall, Calgary-based Earth Energy Resources received approval for large mining operations from the Utah Division of Oil, Gas and Mining (DOGM), reportedly the first permit of its kind in the United States.
Paul Michael Wihbey, president of the Washington-based Global Water and Energy Strategy Team, has been watching the evolution of Canada’s oilsands in a global context. Also a strategic fellow at the Institute for Advanced Strategic and Political Studies in Jerusalem, Wihbey is often called upon to offer his analysis of geopolitical energy trends. He recently told Oilsands Review writer R.P. Stastny his views on opportunities for Canadian bitumen technologies overseas.
Dr. Columba Yeung has long believed that the technologies he has developed to upgrade bitumen will revolutionize the oilsands industry, dramatically improving its environmental footprint and lowering costs.
In late 2009, the Fort McMurray Chamber of Commerce polled area citizens in an effort to assess their satisfaction with the current quality of life in the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo, the heart of the Athabasca oilsands deposit. Some have said that the recent economic slowdown has allowed the community to catch up on some of its direly needed infrastructure needs such as roads, water treatment, and housing. Others say the physical challenges remain, as well as the overarching issue of a transient workforce not invested in the community, evidenced but low voter turnout.
Laurie Bellman, P. Geoph.
“Your bank may be investing your pension, if you have one, in the Tar Sands of canada. .that is messed up. .you’re pension wont be worth shit if you dont have a planet to live on. A lot of people are doing sumfing about it here.” [sic]
— Radiohead singer Thom York on www.radiohead.com, linking to a FairPensions website denouncing oilsands development, Mar. 31.
By 2050, woodland caribou may no longer exist in the boreal forest of northeastern Alberta. That is the fear and prediction that prompted conservation groups to ask for an emergency protection order for the animals from Environment Canada this February, citing oilsands development as a growing threat that they say the province is unwilling to address. This, even though a group that has the support of the Alberta government as well as industry has said in the past that caribou in the main oilsands region are in need of assistance.
UTS Energy may be a relatively small company, but it has some major plans in oilsands mining—including but not exclusive to its stake in the proposed Fort Hills project, which the firm has been stewarding for more than a decade. At 41, Chris Laing is UTS’s manager of projects and development. Responsible for front-end design, planning, and the execution of business strategy, he is enjoying bulking up business skills generally in the background in earlier project management positions with much larger companies.
Extra web content from our print edition
This summer, if the group Peaceful Uprising has its way, activists will flock to Utah—some with the benefit of a $1,500 stipend—to protest a project that with the injection of $35 million would become the country’s first mining project producing oil from sand. Last fall, Calgary-based Earth Energy Resources received approval for large mining operations from the Utah Division of Oil, Gas and Mining (DOGM), reportedly the first permit of its kind in the United States.
