Oil Sands

Oil Refiner Looks to Rejuvenate East Coast Business Models with Rail

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US refining economics have been under pressure in recent years, particularly on the East Coast, where lack of infrastructure or bottlenecks forced some refineries to process crude imported from overseas markets at prices linked to the more expensive Brent benchmark. But independent refiner PBF Energy saw an opportunity and bought 3 major facilities between late 2010 and early 2011 in an effort to access increasing volumes coming on from the Bakken region and Western Canadian oil sands via rail.

PBF acquired 2 refineries located in Delaware City, Delaware and Paulsboro, New Jersey from Valero with a combined refining capacity of 370,000 b/d. Crude was traditionally transported to these plants via barge and ship along the Delaware River, but PBF constructed a crude rail unloading facility at the Delaware City refinery designed to accept shipments from the Mid-Continent and Western Canada at prices linked to West Texas Intermediate – the US benchmark grade – currently trading at a roughly $20/barrel discount to Brent. Keep reading →

 /  Published January 8, 2013 at 8:00 AM

Oil Sands Producers Dig Deep with New Technology

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The iconic image associated with Canada’s oil sands development is that of a huge open pit mine, gargantuan dump trucks and enormous tailings ponds, but this production method is being outmoded as producers move to develop deeper bitumen deposits. Although it relies on a relatively young technology, in situ oil sands development is the wave of the future in Northern Alberta’s oil patch.

Commercial oil sands mining operations date back to the 1960’s and the technology that undergirds the process continues to evolve. Notably, some of the most interesting new technology is invisible, as companies are using horizontal drilling technology to recover oil from deposits located greater than 200 feet below ground. These deeper deposits account for 80 percent of total proven oil sands reserves and are expected to account for 80 percent of total oil sands production over the medium term, from about 50 percent mining and 50 percent in situ today. Keep reading →

 /  Published December 21, 2012 at 9:00 AM

Can Canada’s Oil Sands be Developed in an Environmentally Responsible Manner?

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Commercial oil sands development dates back to the 1960’s, but the process continued largely unnoticed by the international community until the early 2000’s when the resources’ proven reserves were widely publicized. Although the government of Alberta had been working to communicate the importance of the oil sands as an energy source and economic driver, the province’s leadership was taken by surprise when the environmental community trained its crosshairs on the large-scale industrial mining operations.

The debate between the environmental community, regulators, industry and stakeholders about the environmental costs versus the economic benefits of oil sands development has evolved over the years and continues today. Keep reading →

 /  Published December 10, 2012 at 12:30 PM

Canada’s Oil Sands: A Delicate Dance of Regulators, Industry, the Environment and Economy

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The holy trinity for energy is cheap, reliable and clean, but science has yet to unlock a source that provides all three without limits. In the meantime, the challenge for energy producers, consumers and regulators is to negotiate tradeoffs between these ideals in order to find the most acceptable energy solutions for modern society. There are few places in the world where this delicate negotiation between environmental cleanliness, affordability and reliability is more pronounced than in Canada’s oil sands producing region.

Canada boasts the world’s third largest proven oil reserves, which are primarily attributed to the oil sands, located in Northern Alberta. Oil sands are a natural mixture of sand, water, clay and heavy oil referred to as bitumen. Alberta contains 170.8 billion barrels of proven oil reserves – 169.3 billion barrels of bitumen and 1.5 billion barrels of conventional oil. The province is about the size of Texas and produces approximately 1.6 million barrels of crude oil per day from the oil sands, which accounts for about half of Canada’s total crude oil production. Keep reading →

 /  Published December 4, 2012 at 8:30 AM

Texas Keystone Pipeline Critics Resist Use of Eminent Domain

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While national opposition to the controversial Keystone XL pipeline project has focused on the environmental risks of pumping synthetic crude from Alberta’s oil sands across the United States to Gulf Coast refineries, it’s the issue of eminent domain that has riled critics in Texas.

Several appeals have been filed by Texas landowners trying to resist the efforts of pipeline company TransCanada to use a local law to force reluctant landowners to permit construction of a southern extension of the line from Cushing, Oklahoma to Nederland, Texas. Keep reading →

 /  Published October 25, 2012 at 8:30 AM

Shell Oil Sands Project May Set Precedent for CCS

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Shell’s plans to build the world’s first oil sands carbon-capture storage facility in Alberta, Canada will make only a modest reduction in that project’s overall carbon emissions but could set an important precedent in establishing the credibility of CCS worldwide, analysts said.

The oil giant said Wednesday that the US$1.36 billion project will create underground storage starting in late 2015 for more than 1 million tones a year of C02 produced in the processing of bitumen from Alberta’s oil sands, one of the world’s largest reserves of crude oil. Keep reading →

 /  Published September 7, 2012 at 9:15 AM

US and Canada are Competitors and Collaborators in Energy

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Prime Minister Stephen Harper (L) of Canada welcomes US President Barack Obama to the G8 Summit at Deerhurst Resort in Huntsville, Ontario, on June 25, 2010.

The recently announced high-profile oil and gas acquisitions by Chinese state-controlled companies highlight the numerous opportunities for the US and Canada to both partner and compete in global energy markets. Keep reading →

 /  Published July 27, 2012 at 11:00 AM

Oil Sands Producers Make Greatest Environmental Commitment to Date

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Canada’s oil sands industry has taken a major leap toward greening their operations and their image. The 12 largest producers – accounting for 80% of oil sands production – have come together to form Canada’s Oil Sands Innovation Alliance, which has committed to accelerating the pace of environmental improvement, COSIA CEO Dan Wicklum told Breaking Energy recently.

Numerous environmental oversight organizations sprung up organically over time to ensure oil companies were honoring their commitment to the environment. While these ad hoc sustainability initiatives made positive strides, the public wanted more. As a result, COSIA was formed and the chief executives of each member company signed a charter on March 1st committing them to specific activities and behavior. Keep reading →

 /  Published March 29, 2012 at 2:30 PM
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