The PetroChina Syndrome: Doing it Right in Alberta

Back in May of 2006, I had posted a thread titled "Doing it Right in Alberta"

The reason for the posting of the thread was to point to new oil extraction technology being used in the development of the tarsands in Alberta.

Just recently in the news as posted on this site here you will read that PetroChina is investing in the Athabascan field.

Going back to the thread titled "Doing it Right in Alberta", you will find a lengthy article written by WorldNetDaily columnist Jon Dougherty. The article was written back in October of 2000.

The headline to the article, was one of those grabber headlines that read Research promises $5/barrel oil.

While the headline was not realistic on the cost of a barrel of oil being $5, there was one part of the article that was intriguing and that is this:

"Master Separation Technology" makes drilling for oil obsolete, Elgin said. The process works by breaking the electro-bond between oil and sand. After extracting oil, the sand is returned in pristine condition. "In fact, you can plant a crop in the same soil the next day," Elgin said, "so there are no environmental concerns with this method."

At the Athabasca site in northern Alberta, Canada, the new technology has been tested and declared effective. Elgin said in North America alone there "is enough oil in the first thousand feet of just our abandoned wells in Canada and the United States to supply the entirety of the continent for 400 years."

The gist of the article was that a new technology for extracting oil from the tarsands was being developed and it was eco-friendly. And according to WorldNetDaily, the bigger oil companies like Exxon and others pooh-poohed the technology.

Now since we can flash forward to this year, we now know that PetroChina has invested almost 2 billion dollars in a private company that owns the Athabascan fields.

There is an irony that comes from the thread I had made in that it is stated in the end of the WorldNetDaily article:

Elgin said the new technology would be used in Canada first "because there are no environmental laws to rewrite and we're welcome there." But, he noted, "there is a pipeline right there in northern Alberta, where some of this technology has been tested, that we could get the oil to market just as cheaply and efficiently as we've promised."

Once the technology is in place in Canada, Elgin said, the U.S. would be next. "The system is already in use in Canada -- they have written the laws for it, they are used to it. It only makes sense to start there," he said.

Today, Elgin will attend a seminar to describe the new technology at Monrovia, Calif., at a United Republicans of California meeting to be held at the Four Points Barcello Hotel. The meeting begins at 9 a.m. local time. Elgin will speak at 1 p.m. on the topic,

"The Chinese Oil Noose."


Former state Sen. Don Rogers, an independent oilman, will moderate the event.

(emphasis added)


I will be continuing the theme of this thread as I go and pull up past threads I have posted on what is happening with the energy security in the U.S. and how the dollars decline will make companies like PetroChina rich.

And how the environmentalist movement in the U.S. is being used by investors like Soros and Buffett to malign companies like Exxon and ConocoPhillips to the point that the cost to do business becomes futile or expensive.

The Keystone Pipeline project is just one example of how the environmentalist movement is hindering increased oil production in Alberta that would go to refineries in the U.S. while Chinese owned oil companies benefit in Alberta.

Moreover, the oil from the Atahbascan field will supply China.

To date, there has not been one lawsuit that I could find against the development in the Athabascan field.

That fact should set off alarm bells. To date it hasn't.