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Gold/Mining/Energy : Oilsands Quest Inc -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Cactus Jack who wrote (65)	2/10/2008 6:39:00 PM
From: NYBob1	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 85

Why the price of 'peak oil' is famine - By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard International Business Editor Last Updated: 2:54am GMT 09/02/2008 Vulnerable regions of the world face the risk of famine over the next three years as rising energy costs spill over into a food crunch, according to US investment bank Goldman Sachs. "We've never been at a point in commodities where we are today," said Jeff Currie, the bank's commodity chief and closely watched oil guru. # Read more by Ambrose Evans-Pritchard # More economics news Sugar cane on a bullock cart in India. Rising energy costs spill into food crunch. Sugar cane on a bullock cart in India - the commodity is popular as the basis of biofuel, as it is a cost-effective and cleaner alternative to oil Global oil output has been stagnant for four years, failing to keep up with rampant demand from Asia and the Mid-East. China's imports rose 14pc last year. Biofuels from grain, oil seed and sugar are plugging the gap, but drawing away food supplies at a time when the world is adding more than 70m mouths to feed a year. "Markets are as tight as a drum and now the US has hit the stimulus button," said Mr Currie in his 2008 outlook. "We have never seen this before when commodity prices were already at record highs. Over the next 18 to 36 months we are probably going into crisis mode across the commodity complex. "The key is going to be agriculture. China is terrified of the current situation. It has real physical shortages," he said, referencing China still having memories of starvation in the 1960s seared in its collective mind. While the US housing crash poses some threat to the price of metals and energy, the effect has largely occurred already. The slide in crude prices over the past month may have been caused by funds liquidating derivatives contracts to cover other demands rather than by recession fears. Goldman Sachs forecasts that oil will be priced at $105 a barrel by the end of 2008. The current "supercycle" is a break with history because energy and food have "converged" in price and can increasingly be switched from one use to another. Corn can be used for ethanol in cars and power plants, for plastics, as well as in baking tortillas. Natural gas can be made into fertiliser for food output. "Peak Oil" is morphing into "Peak Food". Land use for biofuels has shot up from 12m to more than 80m hectares worldwide over six years. Biofuel provides 3pc of global energy needs, which will rise to an estimated 10.6pc by 2030. In a pure market, sugar cane would be the only viable biofuel with a cost of $35 a barrel (oil equivalent). The others are sugar beet ($103), corn ($81), wheat ($145), rapeseed ($209), soybean ($232), cellulose ($305). Subsidies drive the business. The US offers tax relief of $1 a gallon for biodiesel. The EU has a 10pc biofuel target by 2010. Graphic showing increase in land given over to biofuels The crop switch comes just as China and India make the leap to an animal-based diet, replicating the pattern seen in Japan and Korea, where people raised their protein intake nine-fold as they became rich. It takes 8.3 grams of soya or corn feed to produce a 1g weight gain in cattle - compared with 3.1g for pigs, 2g for chicken and 1.5g for fish. Mr Currie said investment cycles in energy typically last about 10 to 12 years as producers struggle to catch up with demand. However, this cycle has been short-circuited by politicians after barely six years. "The political environment is extremely hostile. The world is looking like the 17th century under mercantilism when countries saw economics as a zero-sum game. They exported as much as they could to get gold, and erected enormous barriers. China looks like that, so does Russia, the Mid-East and most of Africa and Latin America," he said. While the West has much of the skill for developing energy projects, it is blocked by nationalist petro-states from investing directly. telegraph.co.uk bottom basement bargain - siliconinvestor.com Imo. Tia. God Bless

To: Cactus Jack who wrote (65)	2/22/2008 8:22:14 PM
From: NYBob1	Respond to of 85

Oilsands to elbow out conventional production: forecast - John Morrissy Canwest News Service Friday, February 15, 2008 OTTAWA -- Canada's oilsands are taking over where conventional oil production left off, with profits in the oil-extraction industry forecast to rise 18 per cent to a record $23 billion in 2008 on rapidly rising output from the huge oil reserves, according to the Conference Board of Canada. "Investment in upgrading and oilsands mines are finally paying off, as non-conventional production is set to accelerate rapidly," the board said Thursday in its outlook for the country's oil-extraction industry. "Non-conventional oil production will be the main driver behind gains in domestic production for the foreseeable future." In fact, the oilsands will surpass conventional production for the first time this year, said the report's author, Todd Crawford. After peaking at 1.8 million barrels a day in 2002, conventional crude output will fall to 1.37 million barrels a day in 2008 and further to 1.2 million barrels in 2012. This is largely a result of declines in the western sedimentary basin, but also a function of falling numbers on Canada's East Coast, whose three fields all face declining output before new fields go into production, Crawford said. Production in the oilsands, meanwhile, will rise from 1.25 million barrels a day in 2007 to a 1.48 million barrels in 2008 and to 1.62 million barrels in 2009, Crawford said. This will drive Canada's energy industry to another year of record profits in 2008 as oil prices are expected stay above $80 US, the report predicted. However, rising industry costs and new global supply coming on-stream will cause profits to fall by 29 per cent in 2009 before picking up again in 2010. Crawford said changes to Alberta's royalty regime won't have an impact on investment in the oilsands, estimated to contain the world's largest crude reserves outside Saudi Arabia. "Even though royalties may be higher, (oil) prices have been quite a bit higher than company forecasts, so in the end we forecast it'll come out to be a wash," Crawford said. Materials prices, however, are a more daunting matter, Crawford said, much more than even labour, and constitute the greatest component of cost gains for the year. Rising prices of steel, concrete, diesel fuel and other inputs for Alberta's massive oilsands projects will rise 22 per cent in 2008. Such double-digit gains over the past four years have driven many of the projects into multi-billion dollar cost overruns. Canadian Natural Resources was the latest to do so, saying its Horizon project in northern Alberta will now cost as much as $8.7 billion, $1.9 billion more than initial estimates. Horizon will be one of the drivers of oilsands output this year when it starts producing in the third quarter at an expected rate of 110,000 barrels a day. Suncor, whose oilsands business is located near Fort McMurray, produced 245,000 barrels a day on an annualized basis in January and is targeting average annual output of 275,000 to 300,000 barrels a day in 2008. New output will also come from a bitumen upgrader -- which converts the thick oilsands petroleum into usable crude -- being built by BA Energy, expected to begin operations this year. Gains in oilsands output will more than make up for conventional crude declines and Canada's overall output is forecast for rise 9.2 per cent in 2008. The StarPhoenix (Saskatoon) 2008 God Bless siliconinvestor.com Ps. Judge for yourself and then decide whether you wish to join the strike. WE ARE CHANGE!!! tinyurl.com Ps. Constitution Class taught by The 2004 Libertarian Presidential Candidate, Michael Badnarik teaches his famous class about the Constitution.... tinyurl.com history often repeat itself - tinyurl.com siliconinvestor.com