Royal Dutch Shell Announces Plans To Quintuple Tar Sands Production

[hatrack]

THE HAGUE, Netherlands, March 18 (UPI) -- Anglo-Dutch giant Royal Dutch Shell said it plans to quintuple tar sands production.

The company announced it will significantly increase its oil production in the controversial Canadian tar sands in an attempt to stop falling production, the Independent reported.

At its annual strategy briefing, Europe's largest oil company said its net reserves stayed at 11.9 billion barrels last year only because new discoveries offset the governments of Russia and Kazakhstan forcing the company to give them larger stakes in the Sakhalin 2 and Kashagan projects. Otherwise production would have dropped. The company said it would push further into tar sands in Canada, where it and its partners, Chevron and Marathon Oil, have acquired mining rights to 125,000 hectares of land in Alberta.

All three companies currently produce 155,000 barrels per day from the Athabasca oil sands. They have approval to produce 470,000 barrels and have applied for licenses to produce another 300,000 per day.

EDIT

http://www.upi.com/International_Security/Energy/Briefing/2008/03/18/shell_will_dig_deeper_for_oil_in_tar_sands/8452/

Great. :eyes:

[wordpix]

1. Canadian PM taking his cues from GW*---trash the environment

[phantom power]

2. Noooooooooo!

Hulk Smash!

[KittyWampus]

3. what a filthy waste. this gives Peak Oil validity.

[StClone]

4. Playbook right out of "Mountaintop Removal"

Guide to fuck 'em all resource recovery.

[belpejic]

5. Wonder how much this costs

How much does it cost to produce a barrel of oil from tar sands? Excluding subsidies, and honestly calculating energy required for production and post-extraction remedial costs. My guess is that it's cheaper to open up Middle East spigots than pursue this course. My understanding is that this is one of the most expensive ways to produce oil, and that the resulting oil is not high quality. Which, of course, makes it a ridiculous action, at least for now.

Oy. It's like freedom fries, but with real implications.

[hunter]

6. But we were going to use that natural gas to run our air conditioners!

Uh-oh.