Alberta has raised more money from the sale of conventional oil and gas drilling rights so far in 2010 than in any previous year.

Alberta Energy said Wednesday that $118 million flowed into the treasury from the most recent auction of non-oilsands leases and licences for 204,000 hectares of Crown land.

Calgary Herald; Postmedia News, September 30, 2010 Read More

EDMONTON — Migration to Alberta from other provinces jumped in the second quarter, Statistics Canada said Wednesday.

From April 1 to July 1, a net total of 2,820 Canadians moved to Alberta.

That means people from other provinces are being drawn by Alberta's economy after months of dwindling or negative interprovincial migration to Alberta.

By Bill Mah, Edmonton Journal, September 30, 2010 Read More

Residents group opposing Heartland project wants controversial line buried

EDMONTON — Epcor and AltaLink have filed an application to build the controversial Heartland transmission line on towers along the eastern edge of the city, saying residents' concerns about health effects and esthetics do not justify burying the line.

By Darcy Henton, edmontonjournal.com, September 29, 2010 Read More

Proposed facility would bring jobs, tax windfall, but citizens' group remains opposed

The Energy Resources Conservation Board has conditionally approved Total E&P Canada Ltd.'s construction of an oilsands upgrader in Strathcona County Thursday, after a June hearing about the proposed facility, just north of Fort Saskatchewan, which could eventually convert 300,000 barrels of bitumen from the oilsands into synthetic crude each day.

Edmonton Journal, September 17th, 2010 Read More

Provincial government decision to proceed to detailed talks 'bodes well' for $5B area project

The Alberta government gave the green light Tuesday for detailed talks to proceed with North West Upgrading to handle provincial royalty bitumen, and likely allow the firm and partner CNRL to build a $5-billion facility near Redwater.

By Dave Cooper, Edmonton Journal, July 28, 2010 Read More

Ian MacGregor, who chairs both North West Upgrading and Enhance Energy, told a Calgary Chamber of Commerce audience that large-scale carbon sequestration is commercially viable today -- provided the greenhouse gas is used to increase recovery from depleted oil reservoirs. "Otherwise, it's just a cost," he said.

MacGregor's companies are planning to capture CO2 and pipe it from the proposed North West upgrader through 77 conventional oilfields between Edmonton and Red Deer and make it available for enhanced oil recovery, starting with an initial project near Clive. When it comes on stream starting in 2013, it will be the largest commercial carbon sequestration project in the world.

By Shaun Polczer, Calgary Herald, June 22, 2010 Read More

North West Upgrading to spend up to $18B on project

The Alberta government has chosen Calgary based North West Upgrading Inc. to refine the heavy, sticky oilsands product it will receive in place of cash through its bitumen-royalty-in-kind initiative.

Calgary Herald, Dan Healing and Shaun Polczer
May 19, 2010 Read More

EDMONTON — Suncor Energy is joining the queue of firms that would like some of the provincial bitumen that will be become available under the new Bitumen Royalty in Kind (BRIK) program...

...Already Imperial Oil and North West Upgrading have said they have submitted requests. In North West's case, the firm wants half of the BRIK product -- 37,500 barrels per day of the total 75,000 bpd available under the initial phase -- for its proposed upgrader near Redwater.

By Dave Cooper, February 5, 2010 Read More

EDMONTON — The province's new push for more value-added products from bitumen will start in Alberta's Industrial Heartland, with long-term plans for an integrated cluster of chemical industries, a senior energy official says.

By Dave Cooper, January 30, 2010 Read More

50/50 partnership 'a real step forward,' North West says

By Dave Cooper, Edmonton JournalJanuary 29, 2010 Read More

EDMONTON — Edmonton is joining Alberta's Industrial Heartland Association to help push economic development in a move seen as another example of improved regional relations.

The group, scheduled to officially unveil its new member at a ceremony today, promotes and plans for upgraders and other projects linked to the oilsands in a 533-square-kilometre sector northeast of Edmonton.

By Gordon Kent, January 29, 2010
Read More

LONDON/NEW YORK - Growing world oil use will likely outpace the rate of new supplies in 2010, eroding the huge stockpiles of crude which have mounted around the world since the start of the global economic crisis.

By David Sheppard and Joshua Schneyer, Reuters
Tue, Nov 24 2009

Read More

EDMONTON — There likely won't be another boom, but the number of Alberta oilsands projects is set to increase "at a realistic rate" within a few years, and could deliver a total of $850 billion in royalties by 2043, according to an industry update released Tuesday.

By Dave Cooper, Edmonton Journal, November 4, 2009 Read More

Industry is attracting high-profile visitors and worldwide business interests, as well as growing
protest from environmentalists.



Read More

$300M commercial project to link Edmonton upgraders with old oilfields in southwest Alberta

CALGARY - A small Calgary company unveiled plans on Thursday for Alberta's first carbon dioxide pipeline to increase oil production from old oilfields. Enhance Energy Inc., a private firm that specializes in enhanced oil recovery (EOR), is proposing to build the system to link upgraders and processing facilities around Edmonton to old fields in the south-central area of the province to increase oil production. Read More

"Likely another record-breaking quarter . . . driven entirely by strong commodity prices," is how Andrew Potter, an analyst with UBS Securities in Calgary, summed up the outlook. Read More

Enhance Energy Inc., which specializes in enhanced oil recovery (EOR), said the planned system will be capable of gathering CO2 from several sources in Alberta's Industrial Heartland and transporting the CO2 to existing mature oil fields throughout South-Central Alberta. The CCS proces involves pumping the CO2 into the oil fields to increase the outflow of oil, while simultaneously storing the carbon underground. Read More

In 2006, Shell Canada, which already operates the giant Athabasca oil project, already acquired Alberta's oil sands producer BlackRock Ventures Inc. for C$2.4 billion. And in December, BP PLC (BP) took its first plunge into oil sands, when it agreed to a $5.5 billion asset swap and investment plan with Husky Energy Inc. (HSE.T). Read More

OTTAWA - The gaping regional economic divide between the West and the rest will widen even further this year as high commodity prices cushion the resource-rich western provinces from the deepening slump in the U.S., which is dragging down the other provinces, especially in the export-oriented manufacturing heartland of Ontario and Quebec, forecasters warned Thursday. Read More

CALGARY — In its race to secure its energy supply, India is taking a new look at the oil sands.
State-owned Indian energy companies are looking to invest at least $2.5-billion (U.S.) and as much as $10-billion in Alberta's oil sands as part of a national strategy aimed at fuelling India's fast-growing and energy-hungry economy, according to officials who spoke yesterday at the Global Petroleum Conference in Madrid. Read More

A significant amount of growth is anticipated for Redwater, and several developers are hoping to ride that wave when it hits home. One developer in particular has major plans to develop several different lots in Redwater. Terragold Inc. is a land development and investment company based in Edmonton. They own several areas of land in Redwater. One such piece will be called Kingswood Heights. This residential area will have all types of housing including, duplexes, bungalows, town houses, condominiums, etc. Read More

$480M deal for Calgary-based firm brings greater oilsands holdings: French oil major Total said Monday it will buy Synenco Energy Inc. for about $480 million in a deal that will boost Total's holdings in Canada's oilsands region and end Synenco's year-long search for a buyer. Total will offer $9 for each Synenco share, which represents a premium of around 15.5 per cent to Synenco's closing price on Friday of $7.79. Read More

Edmonton developer Ravi Gill is planning to build 435 new homes in Redwater to house industrial workers and retiring farmers. Redwater is ideally located for a growing workforce in the nearby Industrial Heartland, he says. Site preparation already has started for the NorthWest upgrader and “the Petro-Canada upgrader is likely to get its clearance in 2008.” With America’s thirst for a reliable oil supply and Premier Ed Stelmach’s encouragement of an Alberta bitumen- upgrading industry “it doesn’t take too much thought to know that this area has to grow,” Gill says. Read More