TPT May 2009

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From the AmericaS
75 May 2009 ›
of Suncor, who will head up the new company, asserted at a news
conference, “This will truly be a flagship corporation, which will
compete with the best in the world.”
Mr George also made reference to something that still rankles
many Canadians: the leveraged buyouts that, in the period of rising
markets, saw several of Canada’s largest corporations pass into
foreign control. He pointed out that the merger of Petro-Canada and
Suncor Energy meant that two of the country’s largest oil companies
would not – unlike its steel industry and many of its largest mining
companies – come under foreign ownership.
Of related interest . . .
› US Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said on 25 February that he
was scrapping leases for oil-shale development on federal land
in Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming. His department had already, on
4 February, cancelled leases to drill for gas and oil on 77 parcels of
public land in Utah.
The Utah leases, covering more than 100,000 acres, were put up
for bidding in December during the waning days of the George
W Bush administration. The auctions were among eleventh-hour
actions taken by the Bush Interior Department that are under review
by officials reporting to President Barack Obama.
The cancellations mean that the government will forfeit at least $6
million in bidders’ fees. While Mr Salazar did not rule out future
drilling on the lands if warranted by a feasibility study, environmental
advocacy groups hailed the new thinking in the Interior Department.
But the Independent Petroleum Association of Mountain States
expressed ‘grave concerns’ over the direction of the new
administration. Kathleen Sgamma, director of government affairs
for the nonprofit association representing natural gas and oil
producers in the Intermountain West, said, “This is going to make it
more difficult to develop the natural gas resources we need for our
nation’s energy security.”
Pipelines
Two competing projects for Alaska are
scrutinized in light of the long-term prospects
for natural gas
The lead-time for commissioning a new pipeline is so long – ten
years, at conservative estimate – as almost to rule out conjecture
about market conditions when the oil or gas is flowing. A decade out,
what will customers be buying? What price will it command? Will the
political leadership of that time be friend or foe to the industry?
The emphasis placed by US President Barack Obama on cleaner
fuels does nothing to mitigate the uncertainties of any major pipeline
project. It does invite attention to two pipelines under consideration
for the state of Alaska, only one of which is likely to be built. The
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