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Via: Tales from the Terminal Room
Simmons & Company International is the only independent investment bank specializing in the energy industry. Founded in 1974, the firm has acted as financial advisor in over $134 billion of transactions, including 535 merger and acquisitions worth over $93 billion. As well as copies of presentations made by senior partner Matthew R Simmons there is a collection of industry statistics gathered from a variety of sources. These are split into upstream and downstream and include rig counts, summaries of oil and gas prices, US crude oil inventories, refining capacity and days of supply. There is some International data but much of it is North American biased.
Under the main Energy Industry link are lists of major public listed upstream and downstream companies (coverage is world-wide), and links to industry news sources, associations, statistics and government sites (many are North American).
Despite the geographical bias, this is a good starting point for information on the oil and gas industry as it lists most of the key resources. Matthew Simmons’s presentations and papers are often quoted in the main stream media and are worth monitoring. There is an email alert for new presentations but no RSS. If you are desperate for RSS rather than email there is always the Page2RSS service that monitors pages for changes and alerts you via RSS.
Canadian Oil Sands Production to Increase to Over 3 million barrels per day by 2015
The increase in bitumen production from Canadian oil sands will be from just over million bpd to just over 3 million bpd. US and Canadian pipelines and refinery capacity should keep pace with this expansion.
Canadian crude
Canada ranks as having one of the world’s largest oil reserves, after only Saudi Arabia and potentially Venezuela. The Albertan oils sands deposit has inplace resources of about 1.75 trillion bbl, of which about 10% are recoverable with current technologies.
Projected growth of Alberta’s oil sands output is triggering investments in US midstream and downstream sectors in anticipation of the new production. In Canada, oil producers have announced production projects as well as upgraders that will supply growing volumes of bitumen and SCO.
This has encouraged Canadian and US pipeline companies to propose new midstream infrastructure to deliver the production to market. US refiners have announced projects in preparation for the incoming flows from Western Canada.
Strong growth in oil sands production during the past few years has been an important contributor to global supply and provided the US with the prospect of a secure source of supply from Canada. Bitumen production from Alberta’s oil sands during 2007-15 will increase to 3.1 million b/d from 1.2 million b/d.
This outlook is based on an assessment of individual projects that are currently in production or likely to come on stream. It also anticipates delays to projected start-up dates and less than full utilization rates due to anticipated technical problems. _RedOrbit
More details at the source.
Advances in THAI extraction and other advanced in situ processes, may lead to even faster production increases from oil sands.
A Canadian iron mine company seeks to build a 143-kilometre private railway on Baffin Island
Iron Road Across the Permafrost by Oliver Moore, Globe and Mail – September 4, 2008
It will be the world’s most northerly railway, a private line snaking across the permafrost and rock of Baffin Island at a projected cost of $10-million per kilometre.
The ambitious project is part of a plan to tap iron-ore deposits 900 kilometres northwest of Iqaluit. The plan is subject to regulatory approval and securing financing, but preliminary drilling is already under way, say officials of Baffinland Iron Mines Corp., which is listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange.
Construction of the 143-kilometre railway from Mary River to Steensby Inlet is expected to start the summer after next and take four years. (The Norwegian island of Spitsbergen had narrow-gauge trains running from mountain mines to the coast since the early 1900s, but they shut down in the 1970s and were nothing on the scale of the proposed Baffin railway.)
“There’s severe weather and all of our construction schedules have to be built around that,” said Rod Cooper, Baffinland chief operating officer and vice-president of operations.
The current plan is to start building the railway from both ends. As construction progresses, a series of work camps will be established along the route. The line will use a special type of high-grade steel designed for the extremely cold environment. And care will have to be taken to ensure that the embankment acts as an insulating layer that stops the permafrost from thawing.
The 143-kilometre railway will join the Mary River mines to Steensby Inlet, allowing year- round shipping of ore to European steel makers. Delivery of 12.6 million tonnes per year of ore will require, on average, four trains per day, 293 days per year, to travel betweenthe open pits and the port facilities.
By al fin
Extracting the energy from deposits of shale oil, oil sands, and heavy oil can be expensive. More than half of the oil in a conventional oil well is never recovered, due to expense. Various ingenious ways have been developed to get at that oil, but here is a new one that might get the biggest chunk of that energy out: seed the “exhausted” wells with micro-organisms that convert oil to natural gas.
The OU researchers found that they can use their organisms to convert hydrocarbons in oil reservoirs to natural gas. “Because two-thirds of U.S. oil is still in place, we can use these organisms to convert residual hydrocarbons into natural gas and create a new source of domestic energy. The concept of anaerobic metabolism is an innovative process and the OU initiative is the only one of its kind in the United States at the present time. We are also experimenting with shales and other unconventional reservoirs.” _Bioenergy
Micro-organisms can also convert coal, oil shale, and oil sands to natural gas. That is extremely important for where the deposits are difficult to get to by conventional mining methods.
Natural gas can be converted to liquid fuels, to plastics, or to any other organic materials. Or the gas can be used to produce electricity, to drive transportation vehicles, or to cook your lunch.
Via: EurActiv.com
The rush to exploit Canada’s heavy tar-sand oil, which necessitates more energy to recover than conventional oils, could significantly increase global risks of dangerous climate change, warns a new report by the WWF and the Co-Operative Financial Services (CFS), a UK financial group.
The exploitation of unconventional oil reserves in Canada and North America could increase global atmospheric CO2 levels by up to 15%, says the report, ‘Unconventional Oil: Scraping the bottom of the barrel?
‘, published on 29 July 2008.
According to the authors, Shell, ExxonMobil and BP have together announced over $CAN 125 billion (€78 billion) worth of development in Canada’s oil sands by 2015. Total and StatoilHydro also have plans to exploit unconventional oils, in Venezuela and Canada respectively.
With reserves estimated at 174 billion barrels of oil, Canada is already promoting itself as an energy superpower, says the report, placing it second only to Saudi Arabia.
But the extraction and processing of these heavy, bitumen-like oils, involves huge amounts of energy and water, adding to concerns about climate change. “Oil sands extraction produces three times the carbon emissions of conventional oil production, whilst oil shale extraction produces up to eight times as much,” says the report.
As a result, Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions have shot up by 26% since 1990, according the report, way above its Kyoto commitment of a 6% reduction.
In addition, the report points out that the open mining method used to extract the oil sands is creating other problems, with toxic pollution discharges in rivers and intensive water use chief among them. More …
Tuesday July 22 2008 – News Release
DRILLING UNDERWAY ON PETROSTAR’S FIRST BAKKEN WELL IN SE SASKATCHEWAN
Petrostar Petroleum Corp. has initiated drilling of its first Bakken well.
The first well will be drilled to a depth of approximately 900 to 1,000 metres. The drilling is being conducted by Terroco Drilling Ltd. The next planned drilling location is approximately four miles from the current well site and all surveys and permits for the two additional wells to be drilled from this location have been received and the drilling will commence immediately after the initial well is completed. More information will be available as drilling progresses.
Petrostar Petroleum will drill the three initial wells in what it believes are three new pools of Bakken oil in southeast Saskatchewan. The drilling program on the first three wells is being conducted under the joint venture with LSRS as reported in Stockwatch on June 2, 2008. More information on this and other projects is available on Petrostar’s website.
The leases are located in the southeast Saskatchewan extension of the prolific Bakken oil play that covers southern Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba in Canada, and Montana and North Dakota in the United States.
The company is continuing to locate and is currently acquiring additional lands within the general area of the Bakken play and Petrostar’s general area of interest.
CALGARY, July 22 /CNW/
Alter NRG Corp is pleased to announce the filing of a Public Disclosure Document outlining further project details on the proposed development (the “Project”) of Alter NRG’s coal reserves in the Fox Creek Area of Alberta into diesel fuel and naphtha. The Company is excited to be advancing Canada’s first Coal to Liquids (“CTL”) with carbon dioxide (“CO(2)”) capture Project that will provide a clean energy solution for alternative oil production and will use proven processes that have been in commercial operation worldwide for more than 30 years.
The Alberta Energy Research Institute has stated “Gasification is, by far, the cleanest coal/coke conversion technology”, and combined with the planned carbon dioxide capture for use in enhanced oil recovery, the Company believes this Project is an environmentally attractive energy solution for the province. The Company has initiated the regulatory process and a strategic partner selection process and the Project is expected to be operational as early as 2014.
Mark Montemurro, President and CEO of Alter NRG. stated “Alter NRG is concerned about reducing the energy industry’s carbon footprint. As the first coal to liquids project in Canada, the Project will be a significant, long-term contributor to Alberta’s economy as well as set a precedent for clean energy solutions.”
Full CNW Press Release including background on the Project, Carbon Dioxide Sequestration , Timeframe, and Alter NRG : http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/July2008/22/c6424.html
A world of difference: 2008 Utilities global survey
A world of difference marks the tenth anniversary of PwC annual utilities global survey of 118 senior executives in 37 countries and reveals a sector that is anticipating wide scale transformation in the decade ahead.The changes witnessed in the last 10 years have been enormous. We have moved from a time when climate change barely registered a mention in a company’s annual report to one where it is on the lips of every chief executive who runs a power utility business. Similarly, we have moved from a highly fragmented, domestic and, often, municipal utility landscape of 10 years ago to one where the leading companies have a pan-continental and, increasingly, global presence.
The changes the survey respondents predict include a huge change in the technological landscape and structure of the sector in the future. We see a big surge in expectations that a diverse range of generation technologies – wind, solar, geothermal, combined heat and power, other forms of distributed generation and a range of combustible renewable and waste generation – will have a significant impact on companies’ power markets in the next 10 years. We are likely to see landmark change in industry structure with a blurring of the boundaries between power utilities and oil & gas companies. Similar shifts are taking place on the equipment and technological front with utility companies and equipment providers alike seeking to secure ownership of technological assets and market space. The report includes the viewpoint of some of the leading power equipment and technology suppliers to the utility industry.
Download: A world of difference: 2008 Utilities global surveys (1644kb)
Growing Beyond Oil: Productivity, Performance, and Progress in the Countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council
Published: June 2008
Report, 55 pages
The Conference Board New York
Author(s): Ewout Frankema, Vlad Manole, Andrew Tank, Bart van Ark
This report is part of a major research program on productivity, performance and progress in the Gulf Cooperation Council region which The Conference Board is running in conjunction with Gulf Investment Corporation (GIC).
Document Highlights:
Sluggish productivity and an over-reliance on oil and gas pose a threat to the future economic expansion of the countries in the Gulf region. Such an over-reliance on natural resources is a shaky foundation for long-term economic development and will hold back other sectors of the economy, such as high-productivity manufacturing and financial services. Currently, much of the oil and gas revenues are being spent on low-productivity construction and real estate which give only a superficial impression of affluence.
To achieve sustainable increases in living standards over the long term, the region needs to address both institutional barriers to productivity (that prevent resources flowing to their most productive use) and fix the most critical labor market inefficiencies (to ensure a highly skilled and motivated workforce).
This report is part of a major research program on productivity, performance and progress in the Gulf Cooperation Council region which The Conference Board is running in conjunction with Gulf Investment Corporation (GIC).
The Energy Export Databrowser, created by Jonathan Callahan, a Ph.D. chemist who spent 12 years working for NOAA, is based on BP’s 2007 Statistical Review and provides a quick and easy way to view country data on consumption, import and export of crude oil and natural gas. It covers over 80 countries and data goes back to the 1960s. Users can dynamically plot crude oil import/export curves and rescale the data to get a sense of who the major oil producers and consumers are and how this has changed through time.
There is feedback on the browser itself and an interesting discussion on the accuracy and validity of the underlying data on The Oildrum.
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