The leader, on Canada (and to accompany the big survey in the rest of the mag), for Petroleum Economist’s September issue.
CANADA is an energy superpower. That is what Stephen Harper, the country’s prime minister said in 2007 and it remains true despite the downturn in global energy prices in the past year. The country is awash in natural gas and holds the world’s second-biggest deposit of oil, in the bitumen-rich oil sands of northern Alberta. Keep reading →
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The lead piece from the Canada survey in Petroleum Economist’s September issue. Full survey and rest of this piece on the website.
Canada’s oil and gas industry is surviving the economic downturn. The boom times may be over, but stories of a bust are wide of the mark
AS A MEMBER of the G8, Canada is an anomaly: it is the only member of the rich nations’ club that depends on a resource-based export industry to support its economy. Oil and gas are both central to this and Canada’s energy sector increasingly influences the way it deals with the world. Prime minister Stephen Harper calls his country an “energy superpower”. Notwithstanding the temporary slowdown in the US economy, Americans increasingly depend on imports of Canadian energy to support their lifestyle.
And, like much of the rest of the world, Canada depends on the US: its consumers almost monopolise Canadian energy exports and the political decisions made in Washington – like whether to adopt a cap-and-trade system to fight carbon emissions – will shape the Canadian energy industry and politics.
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A piece on the oil sands, part of the Canada survey published in September’s issue of Petroleum Economist. The entire survey, and the rest of this piece, is on the site, for subscribers.
The oil-price collapse took some steam out of the boom in Canada’s energy sector. Development is likely to proceed at a more sedate pace
“I ONLY wish I’d bought land up there,” says Ned Gilbert. It might seem a strange wish, because Fort McMurray’s property market is in a trough. The dip in the price of houses and land in that region has been more pronounced there than anywhere else in Canada because nowhere else were workers willing to pay Manhattan prices for a view of boreal forest with winter wind-chill factors of –50°C. And nowhere else in the world has the collapse in the oil price hurt quite so badly. Keep reading →
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A profile for Petroleum Economist’s August issue of the Pembina Institute, whose analysts were, as ever, extremely useful during my travels up and down Alberta in August. Full thing on PE’s website, for subscribers.
Between environmental abuse and shutting down Alberta’s oil sands lies a reasonable path to sustainable energy production, says the Pembina Institute. Derek Brower meets the province’s ecological voice
OUTSIDE Alberta, the hard-line environmentalist position is in the ascendant and it has bruised the province’s reputation. Forget the pristine wilderness of the Rocky Mountains, the images of Lake Louise or rolling prairie land; Alberta, the green narrative goes, is a danger to the planet. Keep reading →
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I’m in Canada, and I’m extremely busy.
For the past two and a bit weeks I’ve been working on a long survey of the Canadian energy sector for Petroleum Economist’s September issue. I’m also writing an update on the oil sands’ economics for The Economist. Keep reading →
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A piece on Iraq for Prospect’s August issue. The full things is here, for subscribers.
US soldiers began leaving Iraq’s cities on 30th June—the same day that Iraq’s oil ministry began to sell off the rights to drill its lucrative oil and gas reserves. It was a victory, of sorts, for a sovereign Iraq. But western oil companies, with one exception, spurned the auction. The politics of the country’s oil wealth now threaten to undermine its limited political progress—and the economic designs of western business. Keep reading →
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Tagged: Iraq, Licensing, Middle East, politics, Prospect
A piece on the Iraq licensing round for The Economist. Full thing here.
Foreign oil firms in Iraq
Jul 2nd 2009
From The Economist print edition
What would a foreigner do?FOR some conspiracy theorists, the war in Iraq was always about gaining control of the world’s third-largest oil reserves for Western energy firms. True or not, things are not panning out that way. This week most big oil companies turned their backs on the first opening of Iraqi production to foreign investors since Saddam Hussein nationalised the industry 37 years ago. Keep reading →
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Tagged: Iraq, licensing round, Oil, Shahristani
A focus on the delays to the Shtokman project — and what they say about Gazprom. For PE’s August issue, where the rest can be found.
THE SHTOKMAN gas project epitomised the power of the resource holding nations, such as Russia, over the Western majors that had over the decades before commanded control of the world’s energy sector. Now, with news that the project will probably be delayed, it symbolises the ebbing of power away from these countries. Russia, which spent the last few years in the vanguard of the resource-nationalism movement, is suffering disproportionately as the balance of power shifts again.
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Tagged: Credit crunch, Gazprom, LNG, Shtokman, Statoil, Total
A focus piece on Iraq’s licensing round for PE’s August issue, where the full article can be found.
KIRKUK EXEMPLIFIES much of what is still undermining Iraq’s progress from a violent, post-dictator and divided country to a wealthy oil-producing state. The city, which shares its name with the country’s most famous oilfield, is also claimed by Kurds who reject the authority of the central government in Baghdad; and in late June a deadly bomb killed more than 30 people in one of its markets. A couple of weeks earlier, a truck bomb killed scores more. Keep reading →
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Tagged: Iraq, iraq oil, licensing round, Middle East, Oil
On the UK’s impressive new plans to fight climate change. For PE’s August issue, where the whole thing is available.
The UK considers itself as a leader in the fight against climate change. A raft of new plans might put substance behind the boast. Derek Brower reports
TARGETS and more targets. Western governments have been accused for years now of talking a lot of hot air when they tell the world how they will deal with hot air. Last month’s G8 summit did not even manage a theoretical ambition for emissions reductions. The leaders of the world’s richest nations declared that they “recognise the scientific view that the increase in global average temperature above pre-industrial levels ought not to exceed 2°C.” There were no concrete proposals to accompany the words (see p31). Keep reading →
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Tagged: climate change, renewables, UK
