Green Car Congress

DECEMBER 16, 2010

The Royal Society of Canada (RSC)—the country’s national academy of the arts, humanities and sciences—has released an expert panel report on the environmental and health impacts of the Canadian oil sands industry. Environmental and Health Impacts of Canada’s Oil Sands Industry.

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Oil-Sands Canada Oil Industrial 225

Green Car Congress

AUGUST 15, 2010

Examples of emerging oil sands related technologies and trade-offs. The paper is an examination of how various choices about the scale of the life cycle analysis applied to oil sands (i.e., The source material is neither oil nor tar but bitumen, but is most generally described as an example of ultraheavy oil.”.

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Oil-Sands Oil Emissions Coal 225

Green Car Congress

SEPTEMBER 11, 2009

million) to the Petroleum Technology Research Centre ( PTRC ) in Regina, Saskatchewan and StatoilHydro Canada for a project to reduce water use and carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) emissions for in situ oil sands recovery by steam-assisted gravity drainage (SAGD). Water use and CO 2 emissions are major challenges for the oil sand industry.

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Oil-Sands Oil Water Canada 218

Green Car Congress

AUGUST 28, 2010

Shell Canada has started its commercial-scale Atmospheric Fines Drying field demonstration for managing tailings from its oil sands operations. Tailings are a mixture of fine clay, sands, water and residual bitumen produced through extraction processes used with surface mining production (i.e., Tags: Oil sands.

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Oil-Sands Oil Commercial Canada 186

Green Car Congress

FEBRUARY 25, 2010

Canadian Oil Sands Trust, the largest stakeholder (36.74%) in the Syncrude oil sands project, announced plans to increase the synthetic crude oil production capacity at Syncrude Mildred Lake upgrader to 425,000 barrels per day by 2020 from 350,000 now. Marcel Coutu, Canadian Oil Sands’ President and CEO.

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Oil-Sands Oil 2020 Canada 199

Green Car Congress

MAY 21, 2010

Growth of production of Canadian oil sands. The Canadian oil sands are now poised to become the number one source of US crude oil imports in 2010, according to new research from the IHS CERA Canadian Oil Sands Dialogue. The Role of Canadian Oil Sands in US Oil Supply”.

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Oil-Sands Oil 2010 Production 186

Green Car Congress

AUGUST 21, 2009

The US State Department has issued a Presidential Permit to Enbridge Energy, Limited Partnership to enable construction of the Alberta Clipper pipeline for the transport of crude oil from the Canadian oil sands to US refineries. This week, the RFA happened to issue two pieces, each touching on the impact of oil sands production.

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Oil-Sands Oil Wisconsin United States 220

Green Car Congress

SEPTEMBER 7, 2009

Microbiologists from the University of Essex, UK are exploring the use of microbes to break down and remove toxic compounds from heavy crude and oil sands. However, the process of oil extraction and subsequent refining produces high concentrations of toxic byproducts. Society for General Microbiology Autumn Meeting, 7 Sep 2009).

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Oil-Sands Oil Clean Cleaning 210

Green Car Congress

DECEMBER 11, 2010

Canada-based MEG Energy’s board of directors has approved 2011 capital investment of approximately $900 million and the final cost estimate for the 35,000 barrels per day Phase 2B oil sands expansion at the Christina Lake in-situ project. barrels of best estimate contingent resources support current production and substantial.

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Oil-Sands Oil Energy 2011 186

Green Car Congress

DECEMBER 8, 2009

A study by researchers in Canada and the US shows that oil sands development is a greater source of polycyclic aromatic compound (PAC) contamination to the Athabasca River and its tributaries than previously realized. Bitumen production in the Alberta oil sands has increased rapidly, rising from 482,000 to 1.3

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Oil-Sands Oil 2008 Canada 220

Green Car Congress

SEPTEMBER 22, 2009

The collaboration will tackle issues surrounding the production of petrochemicals from Alberta’s oil sands. The MOU grew out of Stelmach’s missions to Texas in 2008 and 2009, where he met with Texas Gov. Adams noted America is the biggest market for Canadian oil. Smalley Institute for Nanoscale Science and Technology.

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Oil-Sands Oil Universal Texas 199

Green Car Congress

DECEMBER 24, 2011

Canada-based Osum Oil Sands Corp. billion barrels (net) of Best Estimate Contingent Resources through both acquisitions and additional geological and reservoir work in 2011. The results are providing insights into how to best develop the Grosmont carbonate resource.

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Oil-Sands Singapore Oil Legal 210

Green Car Congress

MAY 24, 2009

Oil sands supply chain. Source: Levi 2009. A new report from the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR)— The Canadian Oil Sands: Energy Security vs Climate Change — claims that prudent greenhouse gas regulations can limit emissions from Canadian oil sands while still enabling robust development of the energy resource.

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Oil-Sands Climate Change Oil Climate 150

Green Car Congress

SEPTEMBER 1, 2009

Athabasca Oil Sands Corp. The projects are located in the centre of the Athabasca area in northeastern Alberta and have been independently assessed to contain approximately five billion barrels of best case contingent bitumen resource. billion (US$1.7 In 2007, Alberta granted China National Petroleum Corp. Earlier post.).

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Oil-Sands Oil Financing 2007 150

Green Car Congress

SEPTEMBER 20, 2011

World oil prices remain high in the IEO2011 Reference case, but oil consumption continues to grow; both conventional and unconventional liquid supplies are used to meet rising demand. In the IEO2011 Reference case the price of light sweet crude oil (in real 2009 dollars) remains high, reaching $125 per barrel in 2035.

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Oil-Sands Oil 2008 Oil Prices 220

Green Car Congress

OCTOBER 3, 2009

A new study released by Global Forest Watch Canada finds that significant amounts of greenhouse gases are emitted through the disturbance and/or removal of biocarbon (trees, shrubs, peats), which overlay Alberta’s oil sands. The bituminous sands industry reported emissions of 28.5 The resulting annual average emissions of 8.7

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Oil-Sands Oil Emissions Gas 191

Green Car Congress

NOVEMBER 13, 2014

Substituting biofuels for marginal fossil-based liquid fuels results in the avoidance of significant GHG emissions that are not currently accounted for in the European Renewable Energy Directive (2009/28/EC), according to a new analysis by the consultancy Ecofys. Both effects increase the carbon footprint of conventional oil.

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Oil-Sands Oil 2014 Fuel 236

Green Car Congress

APRIL 2, 2009

The Northern Lights Oil Sands Project is located approximately 100 kilometers (62 miles) northeast of Fort McMurray, Alberta. A 2008 estimate of contingent resources of the Northern Lights Project published by Synenco was 1.08 billion barrels of bitumen; these resources should be recovered using mining technologies.

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Oil-Sands Oil Light Canada 150

Green Car Congress

SEPTEMBER 7, 2011

The well results confirm a significant resource extension for the Mad Dog Field complex, which includes the existing field, in production since 2005, and appraisal drilling of the Mad Dog South field in 2008 and 2009. interest, Chevron Corporation, through its subsidiary Union Oil Company of California, has a 15.6%

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Mexico Oil Oil-Sands Chevron 220

Green Car Congress

APRIL 10, 2013

An innovative oil-upgrading technology that can increase the economics of unconventional petroleum resources has been developed under a US Department of Energy-funded project. In the case of oil sands bitumen, the API gravity is increased from 8 API to more than 20 API, eliminating the need for diluent for pipeline transportation.

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Sodium Oil-Sands Oil Molten Salt 199

Green Car Congress

FEBRUARY 17, 2011

The Alberta government has successfully negotiated contracts for two projects that will advance the upgrading and refining of oil sands bitumen to diesel fuel. It will process for market 37,500 barrels daily of Crown bitumen in addition to 12,500 barrels per day of bitumen from Canadian Natural Resources Limited (CNRL).

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Oil-Sands Carbon Oil 2009 231

Green Car Congress

JANUARY 19, 2012

Argentina and Venezuela will form a joint venture targeting production of 100,000 barrels of extra-heavy oil per day in the Junin field area of the Orinoco Oil Belt. The US Geological Survey (USGS) characterizes extra-heavy oil as having an API gravity of less than 10°. billion project will also include a refinery. Source: EIA.

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Venezuela Argentina Oil Oil-Sands 210

Green Car Congress

AUGUST 26, 2011

Comparison of the percent differential for WTW (well-to-wheel) GHGs from gasoline produced from WCSB oil sands using different production processes relative to gasoline produced from reference crudes. The proposed Project is not likely to impact the amount of crude oil produced from the oil sands. Click to enlarge.

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Oil-Sands Emissions Oil Oklahoma 253

Green Car Congress

APRIL 29, 2010

has formed the $10-million “Patriot’s Oil Shale Technology Fund L.P.”, to complete funding of the Phase 1 construction of a full-scale prototype oil shale plant under construction in Rock Springs, Wyoming. General Synfuels International (GSI), a subsidiary of Earth Search Sciences, Inc., Earlier post.).

Oil 186

Oil Oil-Sands Wyoming Colorado 186

Green Car Congress

DECEMBER 16, 2010

The development will utilize a dry tree Extended Tension Leg Platform with an on-board drilling rig and have production capacity of 75,000 barrels of oil and 25 million cubic feet of natural gas per day. First oil is anticipated in 2014. Chevron, through its subsidiary Chevron USA Inc.,

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Chevron Mexico Oil-Sands Louisiana 186

Green Car Congress

JANUARY 1, 2010

Venezuela state-owned PDVSA and Italy-based Eni are finalizing a planned 60:40 joint venture to produce heavy crude oil in Junin Block 5 in the Orinoco Oil Belt in Venezuela in 2014. Junin 5 is located in the Orinoco Oil Belt, specifically between Guarico and Anzoategui states. Click to enlarge.

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Venezuela Oil Oil-Sands 2009 186

Green Car Congress

AUGUST 23, 2009

In the US, producing one gallon of ethanol from switchgrass consumes approximately the same net amount of water as does producing a gallon of gasoline from conventional crude or oil sands oil, according to a study by Argonne National Laboratory researchers presented at the 238 th national meeting of the American Chemical Society last week.

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Water Gasoline Oil-Sands Production 292

Green Car Congress

MARCH 31, 2010

Shell Canada Energy’s Scotford Upgrader, close to its refinery near Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta, uses hydrogen to upgrade high viscosity extra heavy crude oil (bitumen) into a wide range of synthetic crude oils. Sherritt International Corporation is a diversified natural resource company. Williams Energy (Canada), Inc.

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Canada Hydrogen Oil-Sands Supplies 170

Green Car Congress

APRIL 17, 2010

The Government of Canada has established a Heavy Oil Working Group. Comprising countries such as Canada, Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, the United States and Venezuela, the Heavy Oil Working Group will collaborate on clean energy research to reduce the impact of fossil fuel development. Minister Paradis.

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Canada Oil Oil-Sands Cleaner 170

Green Car Congress

AUGUST 24, 2011

To be sited at Jie Yang City, Guangdong Province, the Nanhai refinery will be operational in early 2015, with a capacity to process 400,000 barrels of heavy and extra heavy crude oil per day (400 kbd) from the Orinoco Oil Belt. Oil and Gas Journal (OGJ) pegged Venezuela’s 2011 reserves at 211 billion barrels, up from 99.4

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Saudi Arabia Venezuela Oil Oil-Sands 186

Green Car Congress

APRIL 28, 2011

Water is required for crude oil recovery by water flooding, enhanced oil recovery via steam injection, and steam extraction of bitumen from oil sands and during refining of crude oil to produce gasoline. BW consumption intensities of gasoline from conventional crude oil and Canadian oil sands range from 0.41

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Water Davis Oil-Sands Nebraska 199

Green Car Congress

JUNE 23, 2011

Chevron’s focus on optimizing the thermal management of the Kern River field has resulted in a steady drop in the steam:oil ratio (barrels steam water per barrel oil), resulting in improved economics of the field even with slowly declining production. Data: California DOGGR. Click to enlarge. Source: Chevron. Click to enlarge.

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Chevron Oil Oil-Sands Production 244

Green Car Congress

MARCH 24, 2009

In addition to having the largest oil sands resource position in Canada, the merged company will have the following characteristics: A resource base with approximately 7.5 Current crude oil and natural gas production of approximately 680,000 boe per day (boe/d). Oil sands (bbl/d). Suncor Petro-Canada.

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Canada Oil-Sands Energy Oil 150

Green Car Congress

JANUARY 1, 2014

BP also confirmed the recently-announced Pitu oil discovery in the frontier deepwater of the Potiguar basin off Brazil’s equatorial margin, announced by Petrobras. This is BP’s third discovery in recent years in the emerging Paleogene trend in the Gulf of Mexico, following Kaskida in 2006 and Tiber in 2009. Click to enlarge.

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Angola Mexico Brazil 2013 220

Green Car Congress

DECEMBER 30, 2011

Judge O’Neill also ruled that California Air Resources Board (ARB) failed to establish that there are no alternative methods to advance its goals of reducing GHG emissions to combat global warming. The Court found that the LCFS discriminates against out-of-state corn-derived ethanol and impermissibly regulates extraterritorial conduct.

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California Carbon Standards Fuel 236

Green Car Congress

JANUARY 12, 2010

RTP rapidly heats biomass at ambient pressure to generate high yields of pourable, liquid pyrolysis oil. The pyrolysis oil—essentially a bio crude oil—will then be upgraded to green transport fuels using technology developed by UOP working with DOE, the DOE’s National Renewable Energy Lab and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL).

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Oil Renewable Oil-Sands Fuel 210

Green Car Congress

FEBRUARY 3, 2010

These charges echo those in a complaint against the LCFS filed by two ethanol trade groups—the Renewable Fuels Association (RFA) and Growth Energy—in December 2009. It will protect us from volatile oil prices and provide consumers with cleaner fuels and provide the nation with greater energy security. Earlier post.). LCFS Complaint.

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California Oil-Sands Oil 2005 199