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by Hyun Young Lee Dow Jones Newswires Friday, December 12, 2008 |
RIGZONE.COM
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OTTAWA (Dow Jones Newswires), Dec. 12, 2008 Forecasts for Canada’s oil sands output have been scaled back again, as the wave of project delays cut into already reduced industry estimates. The Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers now expects oil sands output to hit 2.37 million barrels a day in 2015, down nearly 400,000 barrels a day from its annual forecast made in June. Last year, the industry produced 1.2 million barrels a day.
“There’s relatively little change from our summer report through 2012, but there’s a significant drop in 2012-2015,” Greg Stringham, CAPP’s vice president of markets and fiscal policy, said Thursday. Canada’s total oil production is expected to near 3.6 million barrels a day in 2015, down around 300,000 barrels a day from the summer forecast, Stringham said. Plummeting crude prices and the financial market turmoil have prompted a slowdown in Alberta’s costly oil sands, which house the biggest crude reserves outside North America. A number of oil sands producers are delaying projects or deferring major capital outlays as oil has slumped 70% from July’s record highs near $150 a barrel, crunching into cash flow amid tightened credit markets. Even sector heavyweights such as Royal Dutch Shell PLC have been affected: the Anglo-Dutch major is holding off on around 200,000 barrels a day of extra capacity in an effort to cut costs. Many of the delayed projects were due to start up around 2012, such as Petro-Canada’s ambitious Fort Hills development. This was meant to add another 160,000 barrels of bitumen a day but has been pushed back after costs spiked 50% to top C$28 billion. Analysts reckon most new developments need crude prices above $80 a barrel to make a decent return. Oil settled 10% higher at $47.98 a barrel Thursday, but fell perilously close to $40 last week. However, most companies are maintaining or even boosting oil and gas output over 2009 despite major spending cuts. “In general, the projects that are being cut are more of a longer-term nature,” said Chris Feltin, vice-president and director of institutional research at Tristone Capital Corp. “The pace of spending on those (delayed projects) are really being cut back but that’s not capital that would have been adding production in 2009.” CAPP’s revisions for next year are a “minor” 80,000 barrels a day, or “a little less than we were anticipating,” Stringham said. Production is expected to start catching up to CAPP’s summer forecasts by 2020 as the delayed projects start coming onstream, though it will still be lower, he added. In June, CAPP cut 260,000 barrels a day off its 2015 production outlook versus the previous year’s forecasts. It also reduced oil sands estimates by 180,000 barrels a day, to 2.77 million barrels a day, on mounting cost and regulatory pressures. CAPP represents more than 95% of Canada’s upstream oil and gas industry.
Copyright (c) 2008 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. |
Royal Dutch Shell conspired directly with Hitler, financed the Nazi Party, was anti-Semitic and sold out its own Dutch Jewish employees to the Nazis. Shell had a close relationship with the Nazis during and after the reign of Sir Henri Deterding, an ardent Nazi, and the founder and decades long leader of the Royal Dutch Shell Group. His burial ceremony, which had all the trappings of a state funeral, was held at his private estate in Mecklenburg, Germany. The spectacle (photographs below) included a funeral procession led by a horse drawn funeral hearse with senior Nazis officials and senior Royal Dutch Shell directors in attendance, Nazi salutes at the graveside, swastika banners on display and wreaths and personal tributes from Adolf Hitler and Reichsmarschall, Hermann Goring. Deterding was an honored associate and supporter of Hitler and a personal friend of Goring.
Deterding was the guest of Hitler during a four day summit meeting at Berchtesgaden. Sir Henri and Hitler both had ambitions on Russian oil fields. Only an honored personal guest would be rewarded with a private four day meeting at Hitler’s mountain top retreat.
IN JULY 2007, MR BILL CAMPBELL (ABOVE, A RETIRED GROUP AUDITOR OF SHELL INTERNATIONAL SENT AN EMAIL TO EVERY UK MP AND MEMBER OF THE HOUSE OF LORDS: 
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A head-cut image of Alfred Donovan (now deceased) appears courtesy of The Wall Street Journal.
