Shell rakes in profits from Canadian tar-sands unit: Times of London
By London Bureau
Last Update: 6:31 AM ET Jul 27, 2007
http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/shell-rakes-profits-canadian-oil-s...
LONDON (MarketWatch) -- The world's dirtiest oil is producing the highest profit per barrel for Royal Dutch Shell PLC (RDSA.LN), which yesterday said it would begin to report the earnings of its controversial Canadian oil sands operations as a separate business unit, the Times of London reports Friday.
The huge profit margin from bitumen mined from tar sands in northern Alberta has persuaded Shell to make more financial disclosure in future about the Canadian operation, which is criticized by environmentalists for its carbon emissions, the paper said.
According to Shell's 2006 accounts, oil sands contributed $651 million in profits out of a total of $12 billion for the upstream business of producing crude oil. However, the synthetic crude made from dirty bitumen generates a post-tax profit of $21.75 a barrel, compared with Shell's average profit per barrel of crude of $12.41.
Shell CEO Jeroen van der Veer said the Canadian oil sands operations would be shifted from the exploration unit to the downstream, refining unit, in recognition that oil sands are a mining and refining operation, the paper reports.
