June 4th, 2006:

Teck Cominco already part of Fort Hills oil sands project; Newmont ready to capitalize on international interest by marketing oil sands leases; Kinross funding company to look for oil sands investments

Gary Park
For Petroleum News

When Teck Cominco, one of the world’s largest zinc producers, paid C$475 million last year to take a 15 percent stake in the Fort Hills oil sands project and started talking about evaluating other oil sands opportunities it was seen as the most significant entry by the mining industry into the world of bitumen recovery in Alberta. read more

Sunday, June 04, 2006

Oil shale is fast emerging as a strategic fuel of choice by a committee studying domestic sources of energy, but the resource still has more question marks attached to it than periods.

The Unconventional Strategic Fuels Task Force, established in the Energy Policy Act of 2005, is preparing a draft report that highlights oil shale as the key domestic source of fuel for the nation, said Craig Meis, a Mesa County commissioner who represents Colorado’s local governments on the task force. read more

Associated Press
June 4, 2006 2:02 a.m.

ABUJA, Nigeria — Kidnappers in Nigeria on Sunday released eight foreign oil workers who had been taken hostage early Friday, a police spokesman said.

Spokesman Haz Iwendi said the eight, all reported in good health, were released after successful negotiations brokered by the local state government, police and state security agencies. They included six Britons, one American and a Canadian who were kidnapped Friday off a rig that was drilling off Nigeria’s southern coast. The oil rig was operated by Aberdeen, Scotland-based Dolphin Drilling Ltd., a subsidiary of Norway’s Fred. Olsen Energy, for the Nigerian oil company Peak Petroleum. read more

By REUTERS
Published: June 4, 2006
Filed at 1:55 a.m. ET

ABUJA (Reuters) – Eight foreign oil workers were released in Nigeria in the early hours of Sunday, police said, two days after they were kidnapped from an offshore oil rig by gunmen demanding jobs and development for their community.

National police spokesman Haz Iwendi said authorities in Bayelsa, a coastal state nearest to the rig, had brokered the release of the six Britons, one American and one Canadian. He did not offer any details on the conditions of their release. read more