International Oil & Gas is a category for stories relating to tar sand production or climate change but not in any of the projects already listed geographically. This includes other regions of the planet with horrible environmental and high energy costs that, like the tar sands, are only a "choice" because of high prices and the global depletion of easily recoverable oil reserves. Such issues as the threat of war on Iran, "instability" in Iraq and Venezuela or disasters like Katrina will all drive up oil prices, which in turn doubly encourages tar sand production-- by price demand and energy demand.
Stock markets and global oil interests (including war) would be included here, as would attempts to get oil out of high risk, low return areas from oil shale in Colorado, to natural gas and heavy oil in the high eastern Arctic. The tar sands are part of this trend and should be seen as such. What happens with the tar sands will have a tremendous impact on what kind of choices are made elsewhere, environmentally and socially.
A 'mammoth project' with India?
By David Renwick
Trinidad Express
Jan 31, 2012
It may not be generally recognised but the upgrader project that Energy and Energy Affairs Minister Kevin Christian Ramnarine pursued with Reliance Industries during the Trinidad and Tobago delegation's visit to India last month, led by Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar, has enormous game-changing (sorry to use a now popular cliché) implications for this country's energy sector.
House GOP Pushing Dirtiest Fuel on Planet, Oil Shale (Much Worse than Tar Sands)
By Zachary Shahan On February 3, 2012
Oh my, they just can’t stop. The House GOP seems dead set on destroying the country and destroying the planet. Here’s the latest, via Climate Progress, on its push to develop the dirtiest fuel on the planet (you thought tar sands were bad?!):
by Joe Romm
US proposes scaling back onshore leasing for oil shale, oil sands
Washington (Platts)--
3 Feb 2012
The US is proposing to dramatically scale back the acreage set aside for oil shale and oil sands development in three western states, the Interior Department's Bureau of Land Management said Friday.
The BLM said it had reconsidered a Bush-era plan that made 2 million acres available for commercial leasing for the still experimental techniques for extracting kerogen, a precursor to crude oil, and to develop oil sands containing bitumen.
University of Utah professor warns tar sands process could taint water
By brandon loomis
The Salt Lake Tribune
Jan 23 2012
The citrus-based chemical that a Canadian company plans to use to strip oil from eastern Utah tar sands will leave tailings that could leach cancer-causing compounds into the groundwater, a University of Utah scientist warns.
Tar sands battle continues in California courts
InsideClimateNews | Jan 25, 2012
By Maria Gallucci
A high-stakes legal battle is underway in California over whether the state's clean air agency can enforce a first-ever rule to slash carbon emissions in transportation fuels. The fight is being closely watched because the rule could choke global market demand for Alberta's carbon-intensive oil sands at a very precarious time for the industry.
Oil Shale Mining and Research Picking Up Steam
By Al Fin | Sat, 15 January 2011
Oilprice.com
Estonia's largest oil shale mining company, Eesti Energia, reported the largest oil shale production figures in 18 years for 2010 - 17 million tons, up 3 million tons from the year before.
The bulk of the national power company Eesti Energia's mining subsidiary's production is used in the furnaces of the Narva power plants, which have significantly geared up electricity production due to a sharp decline in imports after the closure of Lithuania's Ignalina nuclear plant. _ERRNews
How lemurs fight climate change
Jeremy Hance
mongabay.com
January 09, 2012
An interview with Kara Moses, a part of our on-going Interviews with Young Scientists series.
Exxon Mobil Gets $908 Million in Venezuela
By AP / IAN JAMES Sunday, Jan. 01, 2012
(CARACAS, Venezuela) —
An international arbitration body has awarded Exxon Mobil Corp. nearly $908 million in a dispute with Venezuela over compensation for the nationalization of its assets, the company said Sunday.
Exxon Mobil sought arbitration after President Hugo Chavez's government nationalized an oil project in the country in 2007.
Exxon 'loses' Venezuela nationalisation case
World's biggest oil company receives ten per cent of what it demanded in a dispute over the planet's "largest" deposit.
Chris Arsenault
06 Jan 2012
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has taken a tough line with multinational oil companies [GALLO/GETTY]
Hugo Chavez must be smiling.
Oil Shale in Morocco: Reserves, History and Production
FreePRNews.in(Press Release) - Friday, January 6th, 2012 -
