Oil Sands Truth: Shut Down the Tar Sands

Alberta (& Saskatchewan) Tar Sands

The process of removing the tar from the sand involves incredible amounts of energy from clean-burning natural gas (with nuclear proposed along side), tremendous capital costs during build up, incredibly high petroleum prices to protect investments, and the largest single industrial contribution to climate change in North America. Production also involves the waste of fresh water from nearby lakes, rivers and aquifers that have already created toxic tailing ponds visible from outer space. None of the land strip mined has yet to be certified as reclaimed. It takes 4 tonnes of soil to produce one barrel of oil. The tar sands are producing over 1.2 million barrels of oil a day on average. The oil companies, Canada and the United States governments are proposing to escalate production to 5 million barrels, almost all destined for American markets-- and lower environmental standards while doing so. They also would need to violate the national and human rights of many indigenous nations who are rightly concerned about many dire social, environmental and economic repercussions on their communities.

To get the needed energy supplies, diluent for the bitumen and diverted freshwater to produce and then to transport the flowing heavy bitumen for refining would require massive new infrastructure and pipeline building from three different time zones in the Arctic, across British Columbia and through Alberta in a criss-cross pattern, into pipelines to such destinations as California, China, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Ontario, Illinois, Wisconsin and Texas. This entire project is now estimated at over $170 billion dollars. And after the whole process described so far, only then will all this dirty petroleum get burned and expel greenhouse gasses into the air causing further climate change.

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Alberta Tar Sands is a category limited to the location and production of tar sand bitumen, an area the size of the state of Florida in northern Alberta province. The giant processing plants near Fort McMurray where the land itself is strip mined as well as the primarily "in situ" in-ground steam separation/production and extraction plants in the Peace and Cold Lake Regions, all in Alberta, are the "Ground Zero" of the single largest industrial gigaproject ever proposed in human history. The process of removing the tar from the sand involves incredible amounts of energy from clean-burning natural gas (with nuclear proposed along side), tremendous capital costs during build up, incredibly high petroleum prices to protect investments, and the largest single industrial contribution to climate change in North America. Production also involves the waste of fresh water from nearby lakes, rivers and aquifers that have already created toxic tailing ponds visible from outer space. None of the land strip mined has yet to be certified as reclaimed. It takes 4 tonnes of soil to produce one barrel of oil. The tar sands are producing over 1.2 million barrels of oil a day on average. The oil companies, Canada and the United States governments are proposing to escalate production to 5 million barrels, almost all destined for American markets-- and lower environmental standards while doing so. They also would need to violate the national and human rights of many indigenous nations who are rightly concerned about many dire social, environmental and economic repercussions on their communities. To get the needed energy supplies, diluent for the bitumen and diverted freshwater to produce and then to transport the flowing heavy bitumen for refining would require massive new infrastructure and pipeline building from three different time zones in the Arctic, across British Columbia and through Alberta in a criss-cross pattern, into pipelines to such destinations as California, China, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Ontario, Illinois, Wisconsin and Texas. This entire project is now estimated at over $170 billion dollars. And after the whole process described so far, only then will all this dirty petroleum get burned and expel greenhouse gasses into the air causing further climate change.

High-frequency trades cited for OPTI share surge

OPTI, in partnership with Nexen, is parented by Israeli corporation Ormat (who also own many shares in the ostensibly Canadian OPTI) and uses the worst climate changing form of procedure available-- borrowed from Ormat who patented it in historical Palestine as "Or Crude", called "cogeneration" in Canada. It's a procedure of burning the waste gunk from the bottom of a previously extracted barrel to power the operations of getting more bitumen.

Inuvik businesses hit by MGM Energy's drilling delay

Inuvik businesses hit by MGM Energy's drilling delay
Friday, September 18, 2009
CBC News

Some businesses in Inuvik, N.W.T., have less work lined up for the coming months after a Canadian gas exploration company said it won't explore in the region this winter.

MGM Energy Corp. announced this week that it will postpone drilling in the Mackenzie Delta region in the 2009-10 winter drilling season, citing continued uncertainty surrounding the proposed Mackenzie Valley natural gas pipeline project.

Greenpeace Ends Shutdown Occupation of Albian Sands Muskeg River Mine

Greenpeace ends Alberta oilsands protest
Last Updated: Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Protesters from Greenpeace occupied two dump trucks and unfurled a banner on the ground at Shell's Albian Sands oilsands site in northern Alberta Tuesday.

The Greenpeace protest at the Albian Sands oilsands site north of Fort McMurray, Alta., ended peacefully Wednesday afternoon after the company and RCMP agreed to let the protesters leave without facing any charges.

The deal was revealed after protesters met with Shell officials and the RCMP.

Suncor ‘all about the tar sands' again

Suncor ‘all about the oil sands' again
After its merger with Petro-Canada, Canada's biggest energy company is backing away from natural gas

Shawn McCarthy
Toronto — Globe and Mail
Sep. 16, 2009

Canada's biggest energy company is putting natural gas on the back burner.

Suncor Energy Inc. plans to sell a significant portion of the natural gas portfolio it inherited from Petro-Canada as it prepares to restart its expansion plans in the oil sands.

As Obama and Harper meet, activists block mine and company faces trial

U.S., Canada ties get messy with oil sands issue
As Obama and Harper meet, activists block mine and company faces trial
Sept. 16, 2009
MSNBC

WASHINGTON - Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper on Wednesday met with President Barack Obama at the White House, bringing with him some environmental baggage: Activists back home were squatting at a huge open pit mine used to get oil from tar sands, while a company this week pleaded not guilty to charges it was negligent in the deaths of 1,600 birds that flew into a tar sands waste reservoir.

Greenpeace activists still holding Albian on Day 2 of tar sands protest

Alberta (& Saskatchewan) Tar Sands

Hats off. Amazed they have held it more than an hour. A very good surprise!

--M

Greenpeace activists enter Day 2 of oilsands protest
Edmonton Journal
September 16, 2009

EDMONTON — Greenpeace activists who have chained themselves to equipment at an oilsands mine in northern Alberta were hunkering down for another day of protest Wednesday.

Edmonton Journal Spin to ramp up security at Tar Sands mines

It was only a matter of time that the corporate media and their owners used resistance to tar sands destruction and death to raise the spectre of "terror". Let's hope that people are able to defend their civil liberties from this utter nonsense.

--M

Greenpeace protesters breach “secure” oilsands site

By Richard Warnica, edmontonjournal.com
September 15, 2009

Why the British are invading the oil patch

Why the British are invading the oil patch
Nathan Vanderklippe

Calgary — Globe and Mail
Sep. 09, 2009

At a time when thousands of Alberta's oil and construction workers have lost their jobs, the British Trade Office in Calgary has added to its numbers as it handles a surge in interest from corporations back home, many of them interested in bringing to Canada expertise gained from work in the North Sea.

Syncrude pleads not guilty to duck deaths

Syncrude pleads not guilty to duck deaths
September 15, 2009
ROLAND CILLIERS
Fort McMurray Today staff

Syncrude Canada is pleading not guilty to government charges laid as a result of 1,606 birds that were killed on the companies work-site last year.

Tar sands under attack on environment globally

Oil sands under attack on environment

The industry is accustomed to defending its image in North America, but it now faces a multifront war, with opposition growing from Norway to Washington

Shawn McCarthy

Ottawa — Globe and Mail
Sep. 15, 2009

The environmental battle over Alberta's oil sands is going global, forcing the industry to respond to new attacks on its record and putting fresh pressure on Ottawa.