EDMONTON – The extremely low price for bitumen, which is currently sapping Alberta government revenues, should rise in 2014, according to the former chief executive of Suncor Energy.
But the “serious” situation should remind Albertans about the dangers of having basically one customer for your product, Rick George said during the Edmonton Economic Development Corporation’s annual luncheon on Tuesday at the Shaw Conference Centre.
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EDMONTON – The first oil from Southern Pacific Resource Corp.’s startup thermal oilsands facility near Fort McMurray reached Mississippi by rail this week after a 4,500-kilometre, two-week journey.
The Calgary-based firm was in the news this fall when it announced it would avoid the bitumen pipeline bottlenecks and very low prices being paid to Canadian oilsands producers by contracting for new terminals and a fleet of rail cars to carry its product to the U.S. Gulf Coast.
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Strathcona County is boasting a boom following the announcement of a go-ahead for the Northwest Upgrader north of Sherwood Park.
The Sturgeon County development falls outside Strathcona’s jurisdiction, but as an Industrial Heartland initiative, the $5.7-billion bitumen refinery is proving profitable for the entire surrounding region.
Read more: http://tinyurl.com/b322rpn
FORT SASKATCHEWAN – All is good in the Industrial Heartland following a recent announcement that Sturgeon County’s Northwest Upgrader has been given the go-ahead.
The $5.7-billion bitumen refinery is drawing attention from around the Heartland, starting with Fort Saskatchewan.
Last week saw Mayor Gale Katchur receive a message from Doug Bertsch, vice-president of regulatory affairs with the North West Redwater Partnership, which is heading the upgrader project.
Read more: http://tinyurl.com/ckntwvq
EDMONTON — A new report touting American energy self-sufficiency is sounding the alarm for increasing Asian access for Alberta bitumen.
The London-based International Energy Agency said the province’s largest customer, the United States, will be nearly self-sufficient for energy overall by 2035 and a net exporter of natural gas within a decade from now.
Read more: http://tinyurl.com/b64ynwx
In a market where heavy crude sells at a huge discount and pipeline space is at a premium, one oilsands producer has found a way around the bottleneck.
Southern Pacific Resource Corp., which began trucking out initial production from its new McKay Thermal Project three weeks ago, will open a dedicated rail terminal in a few weeks just south of Fort McMurray and ship its product in leased tanker cars via CN Rail all the way to Natchez, Miss.
Read more: http://tinyurl.com/a9a8qpl
EDMONTON- Almost two years after the provincial government agreed to refine some of its royalty bitumen locally, the $5.7 billion Sturgeon upgrader and refinery has been given the green light.
Read more: http://tinyurl.com/co6855h
CALGARY — Private start-up Surmont Energy Ltd. of Calgary announced Thursday it has applied for regulatory approval to build an oilsands project that would produce 12,000 barrels of bitumen per day.
The company founded barely a year ago is proposing a $500-million project called Wildwood which would produce using steam-assisted gravity drainage technology.
Read more: http://tinyurl.com/8uohu44