Ropa-a-dope: The oilsands are down for the count

Some of the significant factors associated with the oilsands companies and their ongoing and future projects are discussed. Oil companies are investing on mining and in-situ projects and have raised their production of the tarry bitumen to current level of 1.3 million b/d. Oilsand producers are now have to pay 33% of net revenues after recouping start-up costs after January 1, 2009. Greenpeace has asked the Norwegian government to back-out of its oilsands' investment made through StatoilHydro. Suncor has reduced its spending from C$9 billion/year to C$3 billion/year for Voyageur expansion. BA Energy's C$2.9 billion 163,000-brl/d Heartland upgrader and Total's C$8 billion 295,000-brl/d Synenco upgrader programs have also been suspended because of ongoing credit crisis. The Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP) has revised its 2020 forecast for oilsand production from 4.6 million brl/d to 3.3 million brl/d.