Canadian Oil Producers Look to Squeeze Costs Even Further
Low crude prices present a great opportunity to drive down oil sands costs even further, adding to the 25 percent savings so far this year, some of Canada's largest producers said on Tuesday. The bitumen deposits in Alberta's vast oil sands are the world's third-largest crude reserves, but are more expensive to produce than conventional oil because of their energy intensity and the high cost of labour in northern Canada. Oil sands operating costs have already been squeezed as much as 25 percent at some projects, as global crude prices plummeted from more than $100 a barrel in June 2014 to around $45 a barrel in March.
Canada's Oil Sands Boomtown Feels the Chill
The boomtown in the heart of Canada's oil sands region is getting nervous. Fort McMurray, surrounded by the boreal forest of northern Canada, has long drawn thousands with jobs that paid six-figure salaries to a region that produces more crude than anywhere else in the Western Hemisphere. But a slide in oil prices since June has fueled a sense of unease in the community of nearly 73,000 which for over a decade has rarely known anything but the good times. So far, it has been spared mass layoffs at the huge mining and thermal oil facilities that surround the city and produce 2 million barrels per day, roughly two thirds of Canada's exports.
Kara Sea Platform 'West Alpha' Starts Drilling
The 'West Alpha' platform, owned by North Atlantic Drilling, has begun drilling the Universitetskaya-1 well in the Kara Sea as part of a joint Rosneft and ExxonMobil project, reports Russian official news agency 'Arctic-info'. Russian President Vladimir Putin, who took part in the launch of works by videoconference, called it an important step in the development of prospective fields in the Arctic. He noted the uniqueness of the project in terms of technologies applied in exploration and environmental enterprises. Earlier…
