The short to medium term outlook for oil sands and heavy oil projects remains worrisome. As the barrel price for light sweet crude remains (relatively) low, new investments in oil sands projects are unlikely to be forthcoming. The combination of low prices and tight credit may forecast a long period of malaise for Alberta’s oil sands industry.
Read the full article: "Upgrader:Harper’s gambit"
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Upgrader is going up later than usual this week because of the Canadian Federal Election and the American Presidential debate. Now that these two events are a matter of record, there is much good news for the heavy oil and oil sands industries
Read the full article: "Upgrader: elections special"
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
As predicted, the combination of falling oil prices, demand destruction and tight credit is beginning to affect heavy oil and oil sands. Energy stocks and trusts are down, and the news marginalia suggests that companies have a bleak outlook for the future profitability of heavy oil exploration, extraction and upgrading.
Read the full article: "Upgrader: Tight belts"
Thursday, October 2, 2008
Apologies to Mr. Churchill, but this quote is perhaps the best measure of the rocky state of the global financial system. Also, trenchant historical references may boost my chances of getting a non-business journalism job if things go completely pear-shaped. Upgrader got down to brass tacks a couple weeks back, and the underlying problems have changed very little since.
Read the full article: "Upgrader: The end of the beginning"
Thursday, September 18, 2008
. The prospect of further price declines in conjunction with extremely curtailed access to credit should be worrying to companies. It should be especially worrying to juniors and companies on the venture exchange. In the months ahead one would expect consolidation in the oil sands, with small companies feeling skittish and larger operations seeing bargain-rate acquisitions.
Read the full article: "Upgrader: Brass Tacks"
Friday, September 12, 2008
Ouch! For our Canadian investors in commodities, times have certainly been better. The TSX has been dragged downward by mining and energy concerns this week, and investors are understandably worried. Some see it as a natural part of a cycle, others as a taste of what is to come.
Read the full article: "Upgrader:Canadian election in focus"
Thursday, September 4, 2008
As most of you know by now, the barrel price for oil has dropped precipitously in the wake of Gustav’s fairly uneventful passage through the Gulf of Mexico. The drop in prices has weighed down the energy-heavy TSX indexes, energy companies and the Canadian dollar. However, the US dollar is at a ten month high, and several hurting industries got a boost.
Read the full article: "Upgrader: September 3"
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Falling natural gas prices are a boon to oil sands operators, so if prices remain low in the upcoming months, third quarter results should improve, especially for refiners. A common theme in the Q2 results a couple weeks back was the bite that high natural gas costs took out of profit. With natural gas and oil prices increasingly decoupling, this will be a banner quarter for heavy oil and oil sands producers if current trends continue.
Read the full article: "Upgrader: August 27"
Friday, August 22, 2008
Largely on that information, the resource-heavy TSX composite index was up “2.19 percent by 286.29 points to 13,350.14”. Unsurprisingly, this was driven primarily by energy firms. Messrs. Gates and Buffett were examining the operations of Canadian Natural’s (TSX:CNQ) Horizon project among a couple others.
Read the full article: "Upgrader: August 22"
Thursday, August 14, 2008
A black eye for Shell (NYSE:RDS-B) as the World Wildlife Fund got a ruling from the UK Advertising Standards Authority stating that Shell’s claim of Canada’s oil sands being sustainable was “misleading”. If you have read around Heavy Oil Investing News, you know that I believe oil sands producers must get out ahead of environmental regulations and implement long-term strategies to deal with emissions rather than greenwash. This report shows the dangers of not doing so.
Read the full article: "Upgrader: August 14"
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Thursday, November 6, 2008
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