Oil Sands

After spending several years carefully reviewing the application from TransCanada for the permit necessary to run its Keystone XL pipeline from the tar sands of Alberta, Canada to the refineries and ports along the Gulf of Mexico, the U.S. Department of State has finally announced a decision. It ...

Oil sand samples obtained from the Yousha Mountain in the Qaidam basin located in the northwestern region of China have been sampled, tested and deemed "feasible" for further development and exploration. As the China Petroleum Daily reports, samples contain a high percentage of clean oil that ...

Earlier this year, the EPA criticized ethanol because it has a negative environmental balance of lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions when compared to gasoline obtained from crude oil (read their report here). As there's rarely an attack without pushback, the Renewable Fuels Association has decided ...

Just in case you needed another reason to cut back on your gasoline consumption, you might consider the pollution catastrophe we are creating in Canada, America's main oil supplier. A new report (PDF) released by Environmental Defense, using industry figures, estimates that tailings ponds created ...

The recent drop in oil prices, in combination with the failing economy, is taking a toll in the development of Canadian oil sands. Because of low labor productivity and increasing costs, the Canadian-based industry is finding it increasingly difficult to compete in the global marketplace. Poor ...

Saudi Aramco's core area in Dhahran cityThe world's insatiable demand for petroleum is about to cause more drilling and pumping in Saudi Arabia, as the country is set to begin setting up shop on the Khurais oil field. A ten-billion dollar investment will be made which is expected to allow the ...

Oil sands mining transforms the landscape Photo: David Dodge, Pembina InstituteAmerican mayors attending their annual meeting in Florida this week adopted a resolution that "supports federal legislation that prohibits government use of unconventional or synthetic fuels" derived from CO2-intensive ...

All sorts of people have been weighing in on the price-of-oil situation lately. Could the current price be a bubble waiting to burst or is it reflective of flat production levels mixed with the rising demand from India and China? If former Saudi Aramco executive, Sadad Al-Husseini, is right, $130 ...

Honda's amazing little Cub, which started life with a tiny little four-stroke engine of just 50ccs, continues to build on its record of the most popular vehicle in the world. Just how many tiny-engined Hondas could there be in the world, you ask? How about sixty million. That's certainly a ...

With all the attention being paid to alternative fuels, it is not surprising that Big Oil should launch a PR counteroffensive. The American Petroleum Institute (API), advertising itself as "the People of America's Oil and Natural Gas Industry," is running a new TV ad, Delivering America's Energy ...