- Joined
- Aug 22, 2008
- Messages
- 428
-Cathy Olesen is the Mayor of Strathcona County, part of an area that as recently as six months ago was slated to host as much as $90-billion worth of heavy-oil upgrader projects. At least seven projects had been penciled in, each of them promising millions in economic spinoffs.-But rather than count projects to come, she is counting casualties, victims of the credit crisis, slumping energy prices and regulatory uncertainty: BA Energy Inc., Total SA and Petro-Canada to name three, all of which have recently announced delays. More names are right on the tip of her tongue.-Instead of a crop of upgraders sprouting up in the empty fields northeast of Edmonton, bitumen squeezed out of the province`s oil sands may bypass this rural area and head via pipeline to the refineries in the U. S. Gulf Coast. Jobs, coattail industries and federal, provincial and municipal tax dollars will follow the black goo south.
[*](an aside: Thomas, you invest in Texas, don`t you? Keen foresight! )-"If the pipelines are built, and it`s getting shipped south, it`s gone; there`s no chance to build an upgrader," Ms. Olesen, 47, says. "Once it`s gone, it`s gone. Many of these could be gone forever."
-new shale-gas discoveries in Texas and Louisiana are hurting the province`s natural-gas industry and that the credit crisis is hampering companies needing cash to drill for oil and gas, all putting local jobs at risk.
-When heavy oil is upgraded in Canada, about 60% to 65% of the tax dollars go to the federal government, 30% to 35% to Alberta and about 5% to the local municipalities, Mr. Rigney said. But when bitumen is shipped raw, the federal government`s take drops to about 55%, the province`s to 40%, while the municipalities hang on to their 5%."That`s real money," he says. "They are only going to wake up when they start to run a deficit."
-"If you build the exact same plant in Texas versus Alberta, there probably could be a [cost] difference as much as one-and-a-half to two times more," Real Cusson, Canadian Natural Resources Ltd.`s senior vice-president of marketing, said in Calgary this month. It costs between $20,000 and $25,000 per barrel of capacity to tweak an existing refinery in the U. S. Gulf Coast to handle Canada`s heaviest crude, Mr. Cusson said. To upgrade in Alberta, where ancillary costs are higher, is more like $40,000 per barrel of capacity.
-None of this comforts Ms. Olesen and Mr. Rigney. "We`re on the cusp of a potential great loss that can never be recovered," she says. Mr. Rigney, his voice sagging just a touch, agrees: "Never be recovered."
(FP 081122)
[*](an aside: Thomas, you invest in Texas, don`t you? Keen foresight! )-"If the pipelines are built, and it`s getting shipped south, it`s gone; there`s no chance to build an upgrader," Ms. Olesen, 47, says. "Once it`s gone, it`s gone. Many of these could be gone forever."
-new shale-gas discoveries in Texas and Louisiana are hurting the province`s natural-gas industry and that the credit crisis is hampering companies needing cash to drill for oil and gas, all putting local jobs at risk.
-When heavy oil is upgraded in Canada, about 60% to 65% of the tax dollars go to the federal government, 30% to 35% to Alberta and about 5% to the local municipalities, Mr. Rigney said. But when bitumen is shipped raw, the federal government`s take drops to about 55%, the province`s to 40%, while the municipalities hang on to their 5%."That`s real money," he says. "They are only going to wake up when they start to run a deficit."
-"If you build the exact same plant in Texas versus Alberta, there probably could be a [cost] difference as much as one-and-a-half to two times more," Real Cusson, Canadian Natural Resources Ltd.`s senior vice-president of marketing, said in Calgary this month. It costs between $20,000 and $25,000 per barrel of capacity to tweak an existing refinery in the U. S. Gulf Coast to handle Canada`s heaviest crude, Mr. Cusson said. To upgrade in Alberta, where ancillary costs are higher, is more like $40,000 per barrel of capacity.
-None of this comforts Ms. Olesen and Mr. Rigney. "We`re on the cusp of a potential great loss that can never be recovered," she says. Mr. Rigney, his voice sagging just a touch, agrees: "Never be recovered."
(FP 081122)
