Royal Dutch Shell Plc  .com Rotating Header Image

Tar Sands

Mining the Canadian tar sands

From pages 19 & 20 of “Royal Dutch Shell and its sustainability troubles” – Background report to the Erratum of Shell’s Annual Report 2010

The report is made on behalf of Milieudefensie (Friends of the Earth Netherlands)
Author: Albert ten Kate: May 2011.

Shell’s largest unconventional oil resource

Due to “easy” oil getting scarce, oil companies are investing in unconventional oil resources. In general, unconventional oil production has greater environmental impacts than conventional oil production. The Canadian oil sands (often called tar sands) are Shell’s largest unconventional oil reserve. As of 31 December 2010, Canadian oil sands amounted to 26% of Shell’s proven oil reserves. Oil reserves refer to the oil production Shell has secured to exploit in the future.

The oil sands are found in the Canadian province of Alberta. In December 2010, the government of Alberta listed 47 oil sands projects that are planned, underway, or recently completed. The total investment costs for these projects amounted to USD 85 billion. read more

This website and sisters royaldutchshellgroup.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Canadian oil-sand mines stuck as crude price plummets

A string of companies, including Royal Dutch Shell, Petro-Canada and SunCor, have been among those that have frozen multibillion dollar projects - in some cases indefinitely.

This website and sisters royaldutchshellgroup.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Canada’s ‘dirty oil’ challenge

"I think eventually, when all the studies are complete, we should be able to conclude that the tar sands industry is creating an environmental catastrophe"

This website and sisters royaldutchshellgroup.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Oil slump hamstrings Shell, Irving projects

The slump in crude oil prices is putting more development projects on ice. Shell today withdrew its application to build a 100,000 barrels daily oil sands mining project near Peace River in Northern Alberta. Last week Shell delayed expansion of its existing tar sands operation

This website and sisters royaldutchshellgroup.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Shell slammed over “puzzling” tar sands claims

It was in a conference call with journalists a few weeks ago that Shell chief executive Jeroen van der Veer offered perhaps the most bizarre argument yet in favour of the continued development of North America's controversial tar sands.

This website and sisters royaldutchshellgroup.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Redrawing frontiers: Natural resources firms

Royal Dutch Shell paid $2.1bn in a separate auction for blocks in the Chukchi Sea off the coast of Alaska. The price for the 277 blocks was the most it has ever paid for offshore exploration rights. When the company begins drilling wells there by the end of the decade, it will officially bring to an end a 25-year absence of oil and gas groups in the ecologically sensitive area.

This website and sisters royaldutchshellgroup.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Warning that oil summit could push price up

Van der Veer has said peak oil is close and that it is time to start producing it from new sources such as tar sands and gas-to-liquids.

This website and sisters royaldutchshellgroup.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Trees planted to protest Shell oil refinery project

If it proceeds, the multi-billion refinery, expected to process heavy oil from the Alberta tar sands, would be one of the largest construction projects in Ontario's history.

This website and sisters royaldutchshellgroup.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Time for big oil to explore places it would rather avoid

Rising costs and taxes, and limited access to new supplies help explain why BP and Shell have performed so badly and underperformed US peers ExxonMobil and Chevron. But other factors have been at work, such as the fatal accident at BP's Texas City oil refinery and the reserve misreporting scandal at Shell.

This website and sisters royaldutchshellgroup.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Dawn of an energy famine

This week the shape of the global energy crisis came into its sharpest focus yet. The world needs renewable energy fast, but as BP and Shell announced record profits, they also demonstrated that they are in essence retreating from renewables, perhaps with the exception of biofuels. They intend to focus their record billions on expanding production of what remains of traditional oil and gas, plus tar sands and liquid fuels from coal - ruinous in their effect on the climate.

This website and sisters royaldutchshellgroup.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.
Comment Rules

  • Please show respect to the opinions of others no matter how seemingly far-fetched.
  • Abusive, foul language, and/or divisive comments may be deleted without notice.
  • Each blog member is allowed limited comments, as displayed above the comment box.
  • Comments must be limited to the number of words displayed above the comment box.
  • Please limit one comment after any comment posted per post.