19 mar 2015 letter to us senate ctee on energy & natural resources
TRANSCRIPT
-
8/9/2019 19 Mar 2015 Letter to US Senate Ctee on Energy & Natural Resources
1/22
Douglas A. GrandtPO Box 6603
Lincoln, NE 68506 (510) 432-1452
March 19, 2015
Senator Lisa Murkowski, ChairmanSenate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources709 Hart Senate Office BuildingWashington, D.C. 20510
Re: Oil Refining - Considering future eventualities versus the myopia of the present
Dear Chairman Murkowski,
What is ENERGY INDEPENDENCE, really? With Saudi Arabia’s decision to keep the flow ofoil high to retain market share, they have hijacked the world with a flood of oil at reduced price,some say with the explicit intention of destroying the economics of unconventional deposits ofshale oil and tarsands. Do they intend to extract all of their resources—before the end of oil?
The March 1, 2015 edition of Washinton Specter raises the issue squarely front and center:
Late 21st-century graduate students of business studying the growing problem of strandedassets will almost certainly focus on the history of Canada’s Athabasca Oil Sand (aka tarsands). The case studies they read will either describe the gradual abandonment of theworld’s largest reserve of bituminous crude or they will read about the tar sands’ miraculouslast-minute escape from becoming the world’s largest stranded asset. For either outcome,the turning point they will look back on is just about now.
In some respects Alberta’s gigantic deposits of bitumen, a dense mixture of sand and heavycrude oil, third in size only to the reserves of Saudi Arabia and Venezuela, were strandedfrom the start by location. Situated in the heart of a vast boreal forest at the center of a very
large continent, they are hundreds of miles from the nearest refinery and thousands morefrom navigable tidewater.
Of course, some of Alberta’s crude has made its way to market, but so much slower than itcould have, or was projected to, that producers, refiners, shippers, banks and otherinvestors in tar-sands development are beginning to wonder whether they have backed agood play by investing over $160 billion to turn tar into oil.
So the economic stranding process has already begun. Five global energy giants—Shell, Total, Suncor, Statoil and Occidental—have cut bait on major bitumen deposits in
Alberta, in which they had already invested billions. Suncor has just slashed another billiondollars from its capital spending program and $800 million more from operating expenses.
And as oil prices slide lower, commercial and investment banks are reconsidering futureunderwritings. An industry that recently envisioned doubling production over the next20 years is now looking at something closer to the opposite, a halving of productionor worse in far fewer than 20 years.
Please ask refining CEOs and their Boards how they will behave as Corporate profits fail.
Sincerely yours,
Doug Grandt
http://www.wsj.com/articles/suncor-energy-cuts-capital-spending-due-to-low-oil-prices-1421188673http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Oilhttp://grist.org/news/blame-canada-greedy-for-oil-money-the-country-is-turning-into-a-rogue-petrostate/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boreal_forest_of_Canadahttp://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bitumenhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oil_sandshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athabasca_oil_sandshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stranded_assetmailto:[email protected]
-
8/9/2019 19 Mar 2015 Letter to US Senate Ctee on Energy & Natural Resources
2/22
Douglas A. GrandtPO Box 6603
Lincoln, NE 68506 (510) 432-1452
March 19, 2015
Senator Lamar AlexanderSenate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources455 Dirksen Senate O!ce Building Washington, DC 20510
Re: Oil Refining - Considering future eventualities versus the myopia of the present
Dear Senator Alexander,
What is ENERGY INDEPENDENCE, really? With Saudi Arabia’s decision to keep the flow ofoil high to retain market share, they have hijacked the world with a flood of oil at reduced price,some say with the explicit intention of destroying the economics of unconventional deposits ofshale oil and tarsands. Do they intend to extract all of their resources—before the end of oil?
The March 1, 2015 edition of Washinton Specter raises the issue squarely front and center:
Late 21st-century graduate students of business studying the growing problem of strandedassets will almost certainly focus on the history of Canada’s Athabasca Oil Sand (aka tarsands). The case studies they read will either describe the gradual abandonment of theworld’s largest reserve of bituminous crude or they will read about the tar sands’ miraculouslast-minute escape from becoming the world’s largest stranded asset. For either outcome,the turning point they will look back on is just about now.
In some respects Alberta’s gigantic deposits of bitumen, a dense mixture of sand and heavycrude oil, third in size only to the reserves of Saudi Arabia and Venezuela, were strandedfrom the start by location. Situated in the heart of a vast boreal forest at the center of a verylarge continent, they are hundreds of miles from the nearest refinery and thousands morefrom navigable tidewater.
Of course, some of Alberta’s crude has made its way to market, but so much slower than itcould have, or was projected to, that producers, refiners, shippers, banks and otherinvestors in tar-sands development are beginning to wonder whether they have backed agood play by investing over $160 billion to turn tar into oil.
So the economic stranding process has already begun. Five global energy giants—Shell, Total, Suncor, Statoil and Occidental—have cut bait on major bitumen deposits in
Alberta, in which they had already invested billions. Suncor has just slashed another billiondollars from its capital spending program and $800 million more from operating expenses.
And as oil prices slide lower, commercial and investment banks are reconsidering futureunderwritings. An industry that recently envisioned doubling production over the next20 years is now looking at something closer to the opposite, a halving of productionor worse in far fewer than 20 years.
Please ask refining CEOs and their Boards how they will behave as Corporate profits fail.
Sincerely yours,
Doug Grandt
mailto:[email protected]://www.wsj.com/articles/suncor-energy-cuts-capital-spending-due-to-low-oil-prices-1421188673http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Oilhttp://grist.org/news/blame-canada-greedy-for-oil-money-the-country-is-turning-into-a-rogue-petrostate/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boreal_forest_of_Canadahttp://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bitumenhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oil_sandshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athabasca_oil_sandshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stranded_asset
-
8/9/2019 19 Mar 2015 Letter to US Senate Ctee on Energy & Natural Resources
3/22
Douglas A. GrandtPO Box 6603
Lincoln, NE 68506 (510) 432-1452
March 19, 2015
Senator John BarrassoSenate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources307 Dirksen Senate O!ce Building Washington, DC 20510
Re: Oil Refining - Considering future eventualities versus the myopia of the present
Dear Senator Barrasso,
What is ENERGY INDEPENDENCE, really? With Saudi Arabia’s decision to keep the flow ofoil high to retain market share, they have hijacked the world with a flood of oil at reduced price,some say with the explicit intention of destroying the economics of unconventional deposits ofshale oil and tarsands. Do they intend to extract all of their resources—before the end of oil?
The March 1, 2015 edition of Washinton Specter raises the issue squarely front and center:
Late 21st-century graduate students of business studying the growing problem of strandedassets will almost certainly focus on the history of Canada’s Athabasca Oil Sand (aka tarsands). The case studies they read will either describe the gradual abandonment of theworld’s largest reserve of bituminous crude or they will read about the tar sands’ miraculouslast-minute escape from becoming the world’s largest stranded asset. For either outcome,the turning point they will look back on is just about now.
In some respects Alberta’s gigantic deposits of bitumen, a dense mixture of sand and heavycrude oil, third in size only to the reserves of Saudi Arabia and Venezuela, were strandedfrom the start by location. Situated in the heart of a vast boreal forest at the center of a verylarge continent, they are hundreds of miles from the nearest refinery and thousands morefrom navigable tidewater.
Of course, some of Alberta’s crude has made its way to market, but so much slower than itcould have, or was projected to, that producers, refiners, shippers, banks and otherinvestors in tar-sands development are beginning to wonder whether they have backed agood play by investing over $160 billion to turn tar into oil.
So the economic stranding process has already begun. Five global energy giants—Shell, Total, Suncor, Statoil and Occidental—have cut bait on major bitumen deposits in
Alberta, in which they had already invested billions. Suncor has just slashed another billiondollars from its capital spending program and $800 million more from operating expenses.
And as oil prices slide lower, commercial and investment banks are reconsidering futureunderwritings. An industry that recently envisioned doubling production over the next20 years is now looking at something closer to the opposite, a halving of productionor worse in far fewer than 20 years.
Please ask refining CEOs and their Boards how they will behave as Corporate profits fail.
Sincerely yours,
Doug Grandt
mailto:[email protected]://www.wsj.com/articles/suncor-energy-cuts-capital-spending-due-to-low-oil-prices-1421188673http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Oilhttp://grist.org/news/blame-canada-greedy-for-oil-money-the-country-is-turning-into-a-rogue-petrostate/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boreal_forest_of_Canadahttp://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bitumenhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oil_sandshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athabasca_oil_sandshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stranded_asset
-
8/9/2019 19 Mar 2015 Letter to US Senate Ctee on Energy & Natural Resources
4/22
Douglas A. GrandtPO Box 6603
Lincoln, NE 68506 (510) 432-1452
March 19, 2015
Senator Shelley CapitoSenate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources5 Russell Senate O!ce Building Courtyard Washington, DC 20510
Re: Oil Refining - Considering future eventualities versus the myopia of the present
Dear Senator Capito,
What is ENERGY INDEPENDENCE, really? With Saudi Arabia’s decision to keep the flow ofoil high to retain market share, they have hijacked the world with a flood of oil at reduced price,some say with the explicit intention of destroying the economics of unconventional deposits ofshale oil and tarsands. Do they intend to extract all of their resources—before the end of oil?
The March 1, 2015 edition of Washinton Specter raises the issue squarely front and center:
Late 21st-century graduate students of business studying the growing problem of strandedassets will almost certainly focus on the history of Canada’s Athabasca Oil Sand (aka tarsands). The case studies they read will either describe the gradual abandonment of theworld’s largest reserve of bituminous crude or they will read about the tar sands’ miraculouslast-minute escape from becoming the world’s largest stranded asset. For either outcome,the turning point they will look back on is just about now.
In some respects Alberta’s gigantic deposits of bitumen, a dense mixture of sand and heavycrude oil, third in size only to the reserves of Saudi Arabia and Venezuela, were strandedfrom the start by location. Situated in the heart of a vast boreal forest at the center of a verylarge continent, they are hundreds of miles from the nearest refinery and thousands morefrom navigable tidewater.
Of course, some of Alberta’s crude has made its way to market, but so much slower than itcould have, or was projected to, that producers, refiners, shippers, banks and otherinvestors in tar-sands development are beginning to wonder whether they have backed agood play by investing over $160 billion to turn tar into oil.
So the economic stranding process has already begun. Five global energy giants—Shell, Total, Suncor, Statoil and Occidental—have cut bait on major bitumen deposits in
Alberta, in which they had already invested billions. Suncor has just slashed another billiondollars from its capital spending program and $800 million more from operating expenses.
And as oil prices slide lower, commercial and investment banks are reconsidering futureunderwritings. An industry that recently envisioned doubling production over the next20 years is now looking at something closer to the opposite, a halving of productionor worse in far fewer than 20 years.
Please ask refining CEOs and their Boards how they will behave as Corporate profits fail.
Sincerely yours,
Doug Grandt
mailto:[email protected]://www.wsj.com/articles/suncor-energy-cuts-capital-spending-due-to-low-oil-prices-1421188673http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Oilhttp://grist.org/news/blame-canada-greedy-for-oil-money-the-country-is-turning-into-a-rogue-petrostate/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boreal_forest_of_Canadahttp://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bitumenhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oil_sandshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athabasca_oil_sandshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stranded_asset
-
8/9/2019 19 Mar 2015 Letter to US Senate Ctee on Energy & Natural Resources
5/22
Douglas A. GrandtPO Box 6603
Lincoln, NE 68506 (510) 432-1452
March 19, 2015
Senator Bill CassidySenate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources703 Hart Senate O!ce Building Washington, DC 20510
Re: Oil Refining - Considering future eventualities versus the myopia of the present
Dear Senator Cassidy,
What is ENERGY INDEPENDENCE, really? With Saudi Arabia’s decision to keep the flow ofoil high to retain market share, they have hijacked the world with a flood of oil at reduced price,some say with the explicit intention of destroying the economics of unconventional deposits ofshale oil and tarsands. Do they intend to extract all of their resources—before the end of oil?
The March 1, 2015 edition of Washinton Specter raises the issue squarely front and center:
Late 21st-century graduate students of business studying the growing problem of strandedassets will almost certainly focus on the history of Canada’s Athabasca Oil Sand (aka tarsands). The case studies they read will either describe the gradual abandonment of theworld’s largest reserve of bituminous crude or they will read about the tar sands’ miraculouslast-minute escape from becoming the world’s largest stranded asset. For either outcome,the turning point they will look back on is just about now.
In some respects Alberta’s gigantic deposits of bitumen, a dense mixture of sand and heavycrude oil, third in size only to the reserves of Saudi Arabia and Venezuela, were strandedfrom the start by location. Situated in the heart of a vast boreal forest at the center of a verylarge continent, they are hundreds of miles from the nearest refinery and thousands morefrom navigable tidewater.
Of course, some of Alberta’s crude has made its way to market, but so much slower than itcould have, or was projected to, that producers, refiners, shippers, banks and otherinvestors in tar-sands development are beginning to wonder whether they have backed agood play by investing over $160 billion to turn tar into oil.
So the economic stranding process has already begun. Five global energy giants—Shell, Total, Suncor, Statoil and Occidental—have cut bait on major bitumen deposits in
Alberta, in which they had already invested billions. Suncor has just slashed another billiondollars from its capital spending program and $800 million more from operating expenses.
And as oil prices slide lower, commercial and investment banks are reconsidering futureunderwritings. An industry that recently envisioned doubling production over the next20 years is now looking at something closer to the opposite, a halving of productionor worse in far fewer than 20 years.
Please ask refining CEOs and their Boards how they will behave as Corporate profits fail.
Sincerely yours,
Doug Grandt
mailto:[email protected]://www.wsj.com/articles/suncor-energy-cuts-capital-spending-due-to-low-oil-prices-1421188673http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Oilhttp://grist.org/news/blame-canada-greedy-for-oil-money-the-country-is-turning-into-a-rogue-petrostate/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boreal_forest_of_Canadahttp://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bitumenhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oil_sandshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athabasca_oil_sandshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stranded_asset
-
8/9/2019 19 Mar 2015 Letter to US Senate Ctee on Energy & Natural Resources
6/22
Douglas A. GrandtPO Box 6603
Lincoln, NE 68506 (510) 432-1452
March 19, 2015
Senator Steve DainesSenate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources1 Russell Senate O!ce Building Courtyard Washington, DC 20510
Re: Oil Refining - Considering future eventualities versus the myopia of the present
Dear Senator Daines,
What is ENERGY INDEPENDENCE, really? With Saudi Arabia’s decision to keep the flow ofoil high to retain market share, they have hijacked the world with a flood of oil at reduced price,some say with the explicit intention of destroying the economics of unconventional deposits ofshale oil and tarsands. Do they intend to extract all of their resources—before the end of oil?
The March 1, 2015 edition of Washinton Specter raises the issue squarely front and center:
Late 21st-century graduate students of business studying the growing problem of strandedassets will almost certainly focus on the history of Canada’s Athabasca Oil Sand (aka tarsands). The case studies they read will either describe the gradual abandonment of theworld’s largest reserve of bituminous crude or they will read about the tar sands’ miraculouslast-minute escape from becoming the world’s largest stranded asset. For either outcome,the turning point they will look back on is just about now.
In some respects Alberta’s gigantic deposits of bitumen, a dense mixture of sand and heavycrude oil, third in size only to the reserves of Saudi Arabia and Venezuela, were strandedfrom the start by location. Situated in the heart of a vast boreal forest at the center of a verylarge continent, they are hundreds of miles from the nearest refinery and thousands morefrom navigable tidewater.
Of course, some of Alberta’s crude has made its way to market, but so much slower than itcould have, or was projected to, that producers, refiners, shippers, banks and otherinvestors in tar-sands development are beginning to wonder whether they have backed agood play by investing over $160 billion to turn tar into oil.
So the economic stranding process has already begun. Five global energy giants—Shell, Total, Suncor, Statoil and Occidental—have cut bait on major bitumen deposits in
Alberta, in which they had already invested billions. Suncor has just slashed another billiondollars from its capital spending program and $800 million more from operating expenses.
And as oil prices slide lower, commercial and investment banks are reconsidering futureunderwritings. An industry that recently envisioned doubling production over the next20 years is now looking at something closer to the opposite, a halving of productionor worse in far fewer than 20 years.
Please ask refining CEOs and their Boards how they will behave as Corporate profits fail.
Sincerely yours,
Doug Grandt
mailto:[email protected]://www.wsj.com/articles/suncor-energy-cuts-capital-spending-due-to-low-oil-prices-1421188673http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Oilhttp://grist.org/news/blame-canada-greedy-for-oil-money-the-country-is-turning-into-a-rogue-petrostate/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boreal_forest_of_Canadahttp://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bitumenhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oil_sandshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athabasca_oil_sandshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stranded_asset
-
8/9/2019 19 Mar 2015 Letter to US Senate Ctee on Energy & Natural Resources
7/22
Douglas A. GrandtPO Box 6603
Lincoln, NE 68506 (510) 432-1452
March 19, 2015
Senator Jeff FlakeSenate Committee on Energy and Natural ResourcesRussell Senate O!ce Building 368 Washington, D.C. 20510
Re: Oil Refining - Considering future eventualities versus the myopia of the present
Dear Senator Flake,
What is ENERGY INDEPENDENCE, really? With Saudi Arabia’s decision to keep the flow ofoil high to retain market share, they have hijacked the world with a flood of oil at reduced price,some say with the explicit intention of destroying the economics of unconventional deposits ofshale oil and tarsands. Do they intend to extract all of their resources—before the end of oil?
The March 1, 2015 edition of Washinton Specter raises the issue squarely front and center:
Late 21st-century graduate students of business studying the growing problem of strandedassets will almost certainly focus on the history of Canada’s Athabasca Oil Sand (aka tarsands). The case studies they read will either describe the gradual abandonment of theworld’s largest reserve of bituminous crude or they will read about the tar sands’ miraculouslast-minute escape from becoming the world’s largest stranded asset. For either outcome,the turning point they will look back on is just about now.
In some respects Alberta’s gigantic deposits of bitumen, a dense mixture of sand and heavycrude oil, third in size only to the reserves of Saudi Arabia and Venezuela, were strandedfrom the start by location. Situated in the heart of a vast boreal forest at the center of a verylarge continent, they are hundreds of miles from the nearest refinery and thousands morefrom navigable tidewater.
Of course, some of Alberta’s crude has made its way to market, but so much slower than itcould have, or was projected to, that producers, refiners, shippers, banks and otherinvestors in tar-sands development are beginning to wonder whether they have backed agood play by investing over $160 billion to turn tar into oil.
So the economic stranding process has already begun. Five global energy giants—Shell, Total, Suncor, Statoil and Occidental—have cut bait on major bitumen deposits in
Alberta, in which they had already invested billions. Suncor has just slashed another billiondollars from its capital spending program and $800 million more from operating expenses.
And as oil prices slide lower, commercial and investment banks are reconsidering futureunderwritings. An industry that recently envisioned doubling production over the next20 years is now looking at something closer to the opposite, a halving of productionor worse in far fewer than 20 years.
Please ask refining CEOs and their Boards how they will behave as Corporate profits fail.
Sincerely yours,
Doug Grandt
http://www.wsj.com/articles/suncor-energy-cuts-capital-spending-due-to-low-oil-prices-1421188673http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Oilhttp://grist.org/news/blame-canada-greedy-for-oil-money-the-country-is-turning-into-a-rogue-petrostate/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boreal_forest_of_Canadahttp://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bitumenhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oil_sandshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athabasca_oil_sandshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stranded_assetmailto:[email protected]
-
8/9/2019 19 Mar 2015 Letter to US Senate Ctee on Energy & Natural Resources
8/22
Douglas A. GrandtPO Box 6603
Lincoln, NE 68506 (510) 432-1452
March 19, 2015
Senator Cory GardinerSenate Committee on Energy and Natural ResourcesDirksen Senate O!ce Building SD-B40B Washington, DC 20510
Re: Oil Refining - Considering future eventualities versus the myopia of the present
Dear Senator Gardiner,
What is ENERGY INDEPENDENCE, really? With Saudi Arabia’s decision to keep the flow ofoil high to retain market share, they have hijacked the world with a flood of oil at reduced price,some say with the explicit intention of destroying the economics of unconventional deposits ofshale oil and tarsands. Do they intend to extract all of their resources—before the end of oil?
The March 1, 2015 edition of Washinton Specter raises the issue squarely front and center:
Late 21st-century graduate students of business studying the growing problem of strandedassets will almost certainly focus on the history of Canada’s Athabasca Oil Sand (aka tarsands). The case studies they read will either describe the gradual abandonment of theworld’s largest reserve of bituminous crude or they will read about the tar sands’ miraculouslast-minute escape from becoming the world’s largest stranded asset. For either outcome,the turning point they will look back on is just about now.
In some respects Alberta’s gigantic deposits of bitumen, a dense mixture of sand and heavycrude oil, third in size only to the reserves of Saudi Arabia and Venezuela, were strandedfrom the start by location. Situated in the heart of a vast boreal forest at the center of a verylarge continent, they are hundreds of miles from the nearest refinery and thousands morefrom navigable tidewater.
Of course, some of Alberta’s crude has made its way to market, but so much slower than itcould have, or was projected to, that producers, refiners, shippers, banks and otherinvestors in tar-sands development are beginning to wonder whether they have backed agood play by investing over $160 billion to turn tar into oil.
So the economic stranding process has already begun. Five global energy giants—Shell, Total, Suncor, Statoil and Occidental—have cut bait on major bitumen deposits in
Alberta, in which they had already invested billions. Suncor has just slashed another billiondollars from its capital spending program and $800 million more from operating expenses.
And as oil prices slide lower, commercial and investment banks are reconsidering futureunderwritings. An industry that recently envisioned doubling production over the next20 years is now looking at something closer to the opposite, a halving of productionor worse in far fewer than 20 years.
Please ask refining CEOs and their Boards how they will behave as Corporate profits fail.
Sincerely yours,
Doug Grandt
http://www.wsj.com/articles/suncor-energy-cuts-capital-spending-due-to-low-oil-prices-1421188673http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Oilhttp://grist.org/news/blame-canada-greedy-for-oil-money-the-country-is-turning-into-a-rogue-petrostate/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boreal_forest_of_Canadahttp://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bitumenhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oil_sandshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athabasca_oil_sandshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stranded_assetmailto:[email protected]
-
8/9/2019 19 Mar 2015 Letter to US Senate Ctee on Energy & Natural Resources
9/22
Douglas A. GrandtPO Box 6603
Lincoln, NE 68506 (510) 432-1452
March 19, 2015
Senator John HoevenSenate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources338 Russell Senate O!ce Building Washington, D.C. 20510
Re: Oil Refining - Considering future eventualities versus the myopia of the present
Dear Senator Hoeven,
What is ENERGY INDEPENDENCE, really? With Saudi Arabia’s decision to keep the flow ofoil high to retain market share, they have hijacked the world with a flood of oil at reduced price,some say with the explicit intention of destroying the economics of unconventional deposits ofshale oil and tarsands. Do they intend to extract all of their resources—before the end of oil?
The March 1, 2015 edition of Washinton Specter raises the issue squarely front and center:
Late 21st-century graduate students of business studying the growing problem of strandedassets will almost certainly focus on the history of Canada’s Athabasca Oil Sand (aka tarsands). The case studies they read will either describe the gradual abandonment of theworld’s largest reserve of bituminous crude or they will read about the tar sands’ miraculouslast-minute escape from becoming the world’s largest stranded asset. For either outcome,the turning point they will look back on is just about now.
In some respects Alberta’s gigantic deposits of bitumen, a dense mixture of sand and heavycrude oil, third in size only to the reserves of Saudi Arabia and Venezuela, were strandedfrom the start by location. Situated in the heart of a vast boreal forest at the center of a verylarge continent, they are hundreds of miles from the nearest refinery and thousands morefrom navigable tidewater.
Of course, some of Alberta’s crude has made its way to market, but so much slower than itcould have, or was projected to, that producers, refiners, shippers, banks and otherinvestors in tar-sands development are beginning to wonder whether they have backed agood play by investing over $160 billion to turn tar into oil.
So the economic stranding process has already begun. Five global energy giants—Shell, Total, Suncor, Statoil and Occidental—have cut bait on major bitumen deposits in
Alberta, in which they had already invested billions. Suncor has just slashed another billiondollars from its capital spending program and $800 million more from operating expenses.
And as oil prices slide lower, commercial and investment banks are reconsidering futureunderwritings. An industry that recently envisioned doubling production over the next20 years is now looking at something closer to the opposite, a halving of productionor worse in far fewer than 20 years.
Please ask refining CEOs and their Boards how they will behave as Corporate profits fail.
Sincerely yours,
Doug Grandt
mailto:[email protected]://www.wsj.com/articles/suncor-energy-cuts-capital-spending-due-to-low-oil-prices-1421188673http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Oilhttp://grist.org/news/blame-canada-greedy-for-oil-money-the-country-is-turning-into-a-rogue-petrostate/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boreal_forest_of_Canadahttp://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bitumenhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oil_sandshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athabasca_oil_sandshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stranded_asset
-
8/9/2019 19 Mar 2015 Letter to US Senate Ctee on Energy & Natural Resources
10/22
Douglas A. GrandtPO Box 6603
Lincoln, NE 68506 (510) 432-1452
March 19, 2015
Senator Mike LeeSenate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources316 Hart Senate O!ce Building Washington, D.C. 20510
Re: Oil Refining - Considering future eventualities versus the myopia of the present
Dear Senator Lee,
What is ENERGY INDEPENDENCE, really? With Saudi Arabia’s decision to keep the flow ofoil high to retain market share, they have hijacked the world with a flood of oil at reduced price,some say with the explicit intention of destroying the economics of unconventional deposits ofshale oil and tarsands. Do they intend to extract all of their resources—before the end of oil?
The March 1, 2015 edition of Washinton Specter raises the issue squarely front and center:
Late 21st-century graduate students of business studying the growing problem of strandedassets will almost certainly focus on the history of Canada’s Athabasca Oil Sand (aka tarsands). The case studies they read will either describe the gradual abandonment of theworld’s largest reserve of bituminous crude or they will read about the tar sands’ miraculouslast-minute escape from becoming the world’s largest stranded asset. For either outcome,the turning point they will look back on is just about now.
In some respects Alberta’s gigantic deposits of bitumen, a dense mixture of sand and heavycrude oil, third in size only to the reserves of Saudi Arabia and Venezuela, were strandedfrom the start by location. Situated in the heart of a vast boreal forest at the center of a verylarge continent, they are hundreds of miles from the nearest refinery and thousands morefrom navigable tidewater.
Of course, some of Alberta’s crude has made its way to market, but so much slower than itcould have, or was projected to, that producers, refiners, shippers, banks and otherinvestors in tar-sands development are beginning to wonder whether they have backed agood play by investing over $160 billion to turn tar into oil.
So the economic stranding process has already begun. Five global energy giants—Shell, Total, Suncor, Statoil and Occidental—have cut bait on major bitumen deposits in
Alberta, in which they had already invested billions. Suncor has just slashed another billiondollars from its capital spending program and $800 million more from operating expenses.
And as oil prices slide lower, commercial and investment banks are reconsidering futureunderwritings. An industry that recently envisioned doubling production over the next20 years is now looking at something closer to the opposite, a halving of productionor worse in far fewer than 20 years.
Please ask refining CEOs and their Boards how they will behave as Corporate profits fail.
Sincerely yours,
Doug Grandt
http://www.wsj.com/articles/suncor-energy-cuts-capital-spending-due-to-low-oil-prices-1421188673http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Oilhttp://grist.org/news/blame-canada-greedy-for-oil-money-the-country-is-turning-into-a-rogue-petrostate/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boreal_forest_of_Canadahttp://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bitumenhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oil_sandshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athabasca_oil_sandshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stranded_assetmailto:[email protected]
-
8/9/2019 19 Mar 2015 Letter to US Senate Ctee on Energy & Natural Resources
11/22
Douglas A. GrandtPO Box 6603
Lincoln, NE 68506 (510) 432-1452
March 19, 2015
Senator Rob PortmanSenate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources448 Russell Senate O!ce Building Washington, DC 20510
Re: Oil Refining - Considering future eventualities versus the myopia of the present
Dear Senator Portman,
What is ENERGY INDEPENDENCE, really? With Saudi Arabia’s decision to keep the flow ofoil high to retain market share, they have hijacked the world with a flood of oil at reduced price,some say with the explicit intention of destroying the economics of unconventional deposits ofshale oil and tarsands. Do they intend to extract all of their resources—before the end of oil?
The March 1, 2015 edition of Washinton Specter raises the issue squarely front and center:
Late 21st-century graduate students of business studying the growing problem of strandedassets will almost certainly focus on the history of Canada’s Athabasca Oil Sand (aka tarsands). The case studies they read will either describe the gradual abandonment of theworld’s largest reserve of bituminous crude or they will read about the tar sands’ miraculouslast-minute escape from becoming the world’s largest stranded asset. For either outcome,the turning point they will look back on is just about now.
In some respects Alberta’s gigantic deposits of bitumen, a dense mixture of sand and heavycrude oil, third in size only to the reserves of Saudi Arabia and Venezuela, were strandedfrom the start by location. Situated in the heart of a vast boreal forest at the center of a verylarge continent, they are hundreds of miles from the nearest refinery and thousands morefrom navigable tidewater.
Of course, some of Alberta’s crude has made its way to market, but so much slower than itcould have, or was projected to, that producers, refiners, shippers, banks and otherinvestors in tar-sands development are beginning to wonder whether they have backed agood play by investing over $160 billion to turn tar into oil.
So the economic stranding process has already begun. Five global energy giants—Shell, Total, Suncor, Statoil and Occidental—have cut bait on major bitumen deposits in
Alberta, in which they had already invested billions. Suncor has just slashed another billiondollars from its capital spending program and $800 million more from operating expenses.
And as oil prices slide lower, commercial and investment banks are reconsidering futureunderwritings. An industry that recently envisioned doubling production over the next20 years is now looking at something closer to the opposite, a halving of productionor worse in far fewer than 20 years.
Please ask refining CEOs and their Boards how they will behave as Corporate profits fail.
Sincerely yours,
Doug Grandt
http://www.wsj.com/articles/suncor-energy-cuts-capital-spending-due-to-low-oil-prices-1421188673http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Oilhttp://grist.org/news/blame-canada-greedy-for-oil-money-the-country-is-turning-into-a-rogue-petrostate/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boreal_forest_of_Canadahttp://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bitumenhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oil_sandshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athabasca_oil_sandshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stranded_assetmailto:[email protected]
-
8/9/2019 19 Mar 2015 Letter to US Senate Ctee on Energy & Natural Resources
12/22
Douglas A. GrandtPO Box 6603
Lincoln, NE 68506 (510) 432-1452
March 19, 2015
Senator James E. RischSenate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources483 Russell Senate O!ce Building Washington, DC 20510
Re: Oil Refining - Considering future eventualities versus the myopia of the present
Dear Senator Risch,
What is ENERGY INDEPENDENCE, really? With Saudi Arabia’s decision to keep the flow ofoil high to retain market share, they have hijacked the world with a flood of oil at reduced price,some say with the explicit intention of destroying the economics of unconventional deposits ofshale oil and tarsands. Do they intend to extract all of their resources—before the end of oil?
The March 1, 2015 edition of Washinton Specter raises the issue squarely front and center:
Late 21st-century graduate students of business studying the growing problem of strandedassets will almost certainly focus on the history of Canada’s Athabasca Oil Sand (aka tarsands). The case studies they read will either describe the gradual abandonment of theworld’s largest reserve of bituminous crude or they will read about the tar sands’ miraculouslast-minute escape from becoming the world’s largest stranded asset. For either outcome,the turning point they will look back on is just about now.
In some respects Alberta’s gigantic deposits of bitumen, a dense mixture of sand and heavycrude oil, third in size only to the reserves of Saudi Arabia and Venezuela, were strandedfrom the start by location. Situated in the heart of a vast boreal forest at the center of a verylarge continent, they are hundreds of miles from the nearest refinery and thousands morefrom navigable tidewater.
Of course, some of Alberta’s crude has made its way to market, but so much slower than itcould have, or was projected to, that producers, refiners, shippers, banks and otherinvestors in tar-sands development are beginning to wonder whether they have backed agood play by investing over $160 billion to turn tar into oil.
So the economic stranding process has already begun. Five global energy giants—Shell, Total, Suncor, Statoil and Occidental—have cut bait on major bitumen deposits in
Alberta, in which they had already invested billions. Suncor has just slashed another billiondollars from its capital spending program and $800 million more from operating expenses.
And as oil prices slide lower, commercial and investment banks are reconsidering futureunderwritings. An industry that recently envisioned doubling production over the next20 years is now looking at something closer to the opposite, a halving of productionor worse in far fewer than 20 years.
Please ask refining CEOs and their Boards how they will behave as Corporate profits fail.
Sincerely yours,
Doug Grandt
mailto:[email protected]://www.wsj.com/articles/suncor-energy-cuts-capital-spending-due-to-low-oil-prices-1421188673http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Oilhttp://grist.org/news/blame-canada-greedy-for-oil-money-the-country-is-turning-into-a-rogue-petrostate/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boreal_forest_of_Canadahttp://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bitumenhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oil_sandshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athabasca_oil_sandshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stranded_asset
-
8/9/2019 19 Mar 2015 Letter to US Senate Ctee on Energy & Natural Resources
13/22
Douglas A. GrandtPO Box 6603
Lincoln, NE 68506 (510) 432-1452
March 19, 2015
Senator Maria CantwellSenate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources511 Hart Senate O!ce Building Washington, D.C. 20510
Re: Oil Refining - Considering future eventualities versus the myopia of the present
Dear Senator Cantwell,
What is ENERGY INDEPENDENCE, really? With Saudi Arabia’s decision to keep the flow ofoil high to retain market share, they have hijacked the world with a flood of oil at reduced price,some say with the explicit intention of destroying the economics of unconventional deposits ofshale oil and tarsands. Do they intend to extract all of their resources—before the end of oil?
The March 1, 2015 edition of Washinton Specter raises the issue squarely front and center:
Late 21st-century graduate students of business studying the growing problem of strandedassets will almost certainly focus on the history of Canada’s Athabasca Oil Sand (aka tarsands). The case studies they read will either describe the gradual abandonment of theworld’s largest reserve of bituminous crude or they will read about the tar sands’ miraculouslast-minute escape from becoming the world’s largest stranded asset. For either outcome,the turning point they will look back on is just about now.
In some respects Alberta’s gigantic deposits of bitumen, a dense mixture of sand and heavycrude oil, third in size only to the reserves of Saudi Arabia and Venezuela, were strandedfrom the start by location. Situated in the heart of a vast boreal forest at the center of a verylarge continent, they are hundreds of miles from the nearest refinery and thousands morefrom navigable tidewater.
Of course, some of Alberta’s crude has made its way to market, but so much slower than itcould have, or was projected to, that producers, refiners, shippers, banks and otherinvestors in tar-sands development are beginning to wonder whether they have backed agood play by investing over $160 billion to turn tar into oil.
So the economic stranding process has already begun. Five global energy giants—Shell, Total, Suncor, Statoil and Occidental—have cut bait on major bitumen deposits in
Alberta, in which they had already invested billions. Suncor has just slashed another billiondollars from its capital spending program and $800 million more from operating expenses.
And as oil prices slide lower, commercial and investment banks are reconsidering futureunderwritings. An industry that recently envisioned doubling production over the next20 years is now looking at something closer to the opposite, a halving of productionor worse in far fewer than 20 years.
Please ask refining CEOs and their Boards how they will behave as Corporate profits fail.
Sincerely yours,
Doug Grandt
http://www.wsj.com/articles/suncor-energy-cuts-capital-spending-due-to-low-oil-prices-1421188673http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Oilhttp://grist.org/news/blame-canada-greedy-for-oil-money-the-country-is-turning-into-a-rogue-petrostate/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boreal_forest_of_Canadahttp://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bitumenhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oil_sandshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athabasca_oil_sandshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stranded_assetmailto:[email protected]
-
8/9/2019 19 Mar 2015 Letter to US Senate Ctee on Energy & Natural Resources
14/22
Douglas A. GrandtPO Box 6603
Lincoln, NE 68506 (510) 432-1452
March 19, 2015
Senator Al FrankenSenate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources309 Hart Senate O!ce Building Washington, D.C. 20510
Re: Oil Refining - Considering future eventualities versus the myopia of the present
Dear Senator Franken,
What is ENERGY INDEPENDENCE, really? With Saudi Arabia’s decision to keep the flow ofoil high to retain market share, they have hijacked the world with a flood of oil at reduced price,some say with the explicit intention of destroying the economics of unconventional deposits ofshale oil and tarsands. Do they intend to extract all of their resources—before the end of oil?
The March 1, 2015 edition of Washinton Specter raises the issue squarely front and center:
Late 21st-century graduate students of business studying the growing problem of strandedassets will almost certainly focus on the history of Canada’s Athabasca Oil Sand (aka tarsands). The case studies they read will either describe the gradual abandonment of theworld’s largest reserve of bituminous crude or they will read about the tar sands’ miraculouslast-minute escape from becoming the world’s largest stranded asset. For either outcome,the turning point they will look back on is just about now.
In some respects Alberta’s gigantic deposits of bitumen, a dense mixture of sand and heavycrude oil, third in size only to the reserves of Saudi Arabia and Venezuela, were strandedfrom the start by location. Situated in the heart of a vast boreal forest at the center of a verylarge continent, they are hundreds of miles from the nearest refinery and thousands morefrom navigable tidewater.
Of course, some of Alberta’s crude has made its way to market, but so much slower than itcould have, or was projected to, that producers, refiners, shippers, banks and otherinvestors in tar-sands development are beginning to wonder whether they have backed agood play by investing over $160 billion to turn tar into oil.
So the economic stranding process has already begun. Five global energy giants—Shell, Total, Suncor, Statoil and Occidental—have cut bait on major bitumen deposits in
Alberta, in which they had already invested billions. Suncor has just slashed another billiondollars from its capital spending program and $800 million more from operating expenses.
And as oil prices slide lower, commercial and investment banks are reconsidering futureunderwritings. An industry that recently envisioned doubling production over the next20 years is now looking at something closer to the opposite, a halving of productionor worse in far fewer than 20 years.
Please ask refining CEOs and their Boards how they will behave as Corporate profits fail.
Sincerely yours,
Doug Grandt
http://www.wsj.com/articles/suncor-energy-cuts-capital-spending-due-to-low-oil-prices-1421188673http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Oilhttp://grist.org/news/blame-canada-greedy-for-oil-money-the-country-is-turning-into-a-rogue-petrostate/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boreal_forest_of_Canadahttp://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bitumenhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oil_sandshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athabasca_oil_sandshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stranded_assetmailto:[email protected]
-
8/9/2019 19 Mar 2015 Letter to US Senate Ctee on Energy & Natural Resources
15/22
Douglas A. GrandtPO Box 6603
Lincoln, NE 68506 (510) 432-1452
March 19, 2015
Senator Martin HeinrichSenate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources702 Hart Senate O!ce Building Washington, D.C. 20510
Re: Oil Refining - Considering future eventualities versus the myopia of the present
Dear Senator Heinrich,
What is ENERGY INDEPENDENCE, really? With Saudi Arabia’s decision to keep the flow ofoil high to retain market share, they have hijacked the world with a flood of oil at reduced price,some say with the explicit intention of destroying the economics of unconventional deposits ofshale oil and tarsands. Do they intend to extract all of their resources—before the end of oil?
The March 1, 2015 edition of Washinton Specter raises the issue squarely front and center:
Late 21st-century graduate students of business studying the growing problem of strandedassets will almost certainly focus on the history of Canada’s Athabasca Oil Sand (aka tarsands). The case studies they read will either describe the gradual abandonment of theworld’s largest reserve of bituminous crude or they will read about the tar sands’ miraculouslast-minute escape from becoming the world’s largest stranded asset. For either outcome,the turning point they will look back on is just about now.
In some respects Alberta’s gigantic deposits of bitumen, a dense mixture of sand and heavycrude oil, third in size only to the reserves of Saudi Arabia and Venezuela, were strandedfrom the start by location. Situated in the heart of a vast boreal forest at the center of a verylarge continent, they are hundreds of miles from the nearest refinery and thousands morefrom navigable tidewater.
Of course, some of Alberta’s crude has made its way to market, but so much slower than itcould have, or was projected to, that producers, refiners, shippers, banks and otherinvestors in tar-sands development are beginning to wonder whether they have backed agood play by investing over $160 billion to turn tar into oil.
So the economic stranding process has already begun. Five global energy giants—Shell, Total, Suncor, Statoil and Occidental—have cut bait on major bitumen deposits in
Alberta, in which they had already invested billions. Suncor has just slashed another billiondollars from its capital spending program and $800 million more from operating expenses.
And as oil prices slide lower, commercial and investment banks are reconsidering futureunderwritings. An industry that recently envisioned doubling production over the next20 years is now looking at something closer to the opposite, a halving of productionor worse in far fewer than 20 years.
Please ask refining CEOs and their Boards how they will behave as Corporate profits fail.
Sincerely yours,
Doug Grandt
http://www.wsj.com/articles/suncor-energy-cuts-capital-spending-due-to-low-oil-prices-1421188673http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Oilhttp://grist.org/news/blame-canada-greedy-for-oil-money-the-country-is-turning-into-a-rogue-petrostate/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boreal_forest_of_Canadahttp://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bitumenhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oil_sandshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athabasca_oil_sandshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stranded_assetmailto:[email protected]
-
8/9/2019 19 Mar 2015 Letter to US Senate Ctee on Energy & Natural Resources
16/22
Douglas A. GrandtPO Box 6603
Lincoln, NE 68506 (510) 432-1452
March 19, 2015
Senator Mazie HironoSenate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources330 Hart Senate O!ce Building Washington, D.C. 20510
Re: Oil Refining - Considering future eventualities versus the myopia of the present
Dear Senator Hirono,
What is ENERGY INDEPENDENCE, really? With Saudi Arabia’s decision to keep the flow ofoil high to retain market share, they have hijacked the world with a flood of oil at reduced price,some say with the explicit intention of destroying the economics of unconventional deposits ofshale oil and tarsands. Do they intend to extract all of their resources—before the end of oil?
The March 1, 2015 edition of Washinton Specter raises the issue squarely front and center:
Late 21st-century graduate students of business studying the growing problem of strandedassets will almost certainly focus on the history of Canada’s Athabasca Oil Sand (aka tarsands). The case studies they read will either describe the gradual abandonment of theworld’s largest reserve of bituminous crude or they will read about the tar sands’ miraculouslast-minute escape from becoming the world’s largest stranded asset. For either outcome,the turning point they will look back on is just about now.
In some respects Alberta’s gigantic deposits of bitumen, a dense mixture of sand and heavycrude oil, third in size only to the reserves of Saudi Arabia and Venezuela, were strandedfrom the start by location. Situated in the heart of a vast boreal forest at the center of a verylarge continent, they are hundreds of miles from the nearest refinery and thousands morefrom navigable tidewater.
Of course, some of Alberta’s crude has made its way to market, but so much slower than itcould have, or was projected to, that producers, refiners, shippers, banks and otherinvestors in tar-sands development are beginning to wonder whether they have backed agood play by investing over $160 billion to turn tar into oil.
So the economic stranding process has already begun. Five global energy giants—Shell, Total, Suncor, Statoil and Occidental—have cut bait on major bitumen deposits in
Alberta, in which they had already invested billions. Suncor has just slashed another billiondollars from its capital spending program and $800 million more from operating expenses.
And as oil prices slide lower, commercial and investment banks are reconsidering futureunderwritings. An industry that recently envisioned doubling production over the next20 years is now looking at something closer to the opposite, a halving of productionor worse in far fewer than 20 years.
Please ask refining CEOs and their Boards how they will behave as Corporate profits fail.
Sincerely yours,
Doug Grandt
http://www.wsj.com/articles/suncor-energy-cuts-capital-spending-due-to-low-oil-prices-1421188673http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Oilhttp://grist.org/news/blame-canada-greedy-for-oil-money-the-country-is-turning-into-a-rogue-petrostate/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boreal_forest_of_Canadahttp://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bitumenhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oil_sandshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athabasca_oil_sandshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stranded_assetmailto:[email protected]
-
8/9/2019 19 Mar 2015 Letter to US Senate Ctee on Energy & Natural Resources
17/22
Douglas A. GrandtPO Box 6603
Lincoln, NE 68506 (510) 432-1452
March 19, 2015
Senator Joe ManchinSenate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources306 Hart Senate O!ce Building Washington, D.C. 20510
Re: Oil Refining - Considering future eventualities versus the myopia of the present
Dear Senator Manchin,
What is ENERGY INDEPENDENCE, really? With Saudi Arabia’s decision to keep the flow ofoil high to retain market share, they have hijacked the world with a flood of oil at reduced price,some say with the explicit intention of destroying the economics of unconventional deposits ofshale oil and tarsands. Do they intend to extract all of their resources—before the end of oil?
The March 1, 2015 edition of Washinton Specter raises the issue squarely front and center:
Late 21st-century graduate students of business studying the growing problem of strandedassets will almost certainly focus on the history of Canada’s Athabasca Oil Sand (aka tarsands). The case studies they read will either describe the gradual abandonment of theworld’s largest reserve of bituminous crude or they will read about the tar sands’ miraculouslast-minute escape from becoming the world’s largest stranded asset. For either outcome,the turning point they will look back on is just about now.
In some respects Alberta’s gigantic deposits of bitumen, a dense mixture of sand and heavycrude oil, third in size only to the reserves of Saudi Arabia and Venezuela, were strandedfrom the start by location. Situated in the heart of a vast boreal forest at the center of a verylarge continent, they are hundreds of miles from the nearest refinery and thousands morefrom navigable tidewater.
Of course, some of Alberta’s crude has made its way to market, but so much slower than itcould have, or was projected to, that producers, refiners, shippers, banks and otherinvestors in tar-sands development are beginning to wonder whether they have backed agood play by investing over $160 billion to turn tar into oil.
So the economic stranding process has already begun. Five global energy giants—Shell, Total, Suncor, Statoil and Occidental—have cut bait on major bitumen deposits in
Alberta, in which they had already invested billions. Suncor has just slashed another billiondollars from its capital spending program and $800 million more from operating expenses.
And as oil prices slide lower, commercial and investment banks are reconsidering futureunderwritings. An industry that recently envisioned doubling production over the next20 years is now looking at something closer to the opposite, a halving of productionor worse in far fewer than 20 years.
Please ask refining CEOs and their Boards how they will behave as Corporate profits fail.
Sincerely yours,
Doug Grandt
http://www.wsj.com/articles/suncor-energy-cuts-capital-spending-due-to-low-oil-prices-1421188673http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Oilhttp://grist.org/news/blame-canada-greedy-for-oil-money-the-country-is-turning-into-a-rogue-petrostate/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boreal_forest_of_Canadahttp://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bitumenhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oil_sandshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athabasca_oil_sandshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stranded_assetmailto:[email protected]
-
8/9/2019 19 Mar 2015 Letter to US Senate Ctee on Energy & Natural Resources
18/22
Douglas A. GrandtPO Box 6603
Lincoln, NE 68506 (510) 432-1452
March 19, 2015
Senator Debbie StabenowSenate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources731 Hart Senate O!ce Building Washington, D.C. 20510
Re: Oil Refining - Considering future eventualities versus the myopia of the present
Dear Senator Stabenow,
What is ENERGY INDEPENDENCE, really? With Saudi Arabia’s decision to keep the flow ofoil high to retain market share, they have hijacked the world with a flood of oil at reduced price,some say with the explicit intention of destroying the economics of unconventional deposits ofshale oil and tarsands. Do they intend to extract all of their resources—before the end of oil?
The March 1, 2015 edition of Washinton Specter raises the issue squarely front and center:
Late 21st-century graduate students of business studying the growing problem of strandedassets will almost certainly focus on the history of Canada’s Athabasca Oil Sand (aka tarsands). The case studies they read will either describe the gradual abandonment of theworld’s largest reserve of bituminous crude or they will read about the tar sands’ miraculouslast-minute escape from becoming the world’s largest stranded asset. For either outcome,the turning point they will look back on is just about now.
In some respects Alberta’s gigantic deposits of bitumen, a dense mixture of sand and heavycrude oil, third in size only to the reserves of Saudi Arabia and Venezuela, were strandedfrom the start by location. Situated in the heart of a vast boreal forest at the center of a verylarge continent, they are hundreds of miles from the nearest refinery and thousands morefrom navigable tidewater.
Of course, some of Alberta’s crude has made its way to market, but so much slower than itcould have, or was projected to, that producers, refiners, shippers, banks and otherinvestors in tar-sands development are beginning to wonder whether they have backed agood play by investing over $160 billion to turn tar into oil.
So the economic stranding process has already begun. Five global energy giants—Shell, Total, Suncor, Statoil and Occidental—have cut bait on major bitumen deposits in
Alberta, in which they had already invested billions. Suncor has just slashed another billiondollars from its capital spending program and $800 million more from operating expenses.
And as oil prices slide lower, commercial and investment banks are reconsidering futureunderwritings. An industry that recently envisioned doubling production over the next20 years is now looking at something closer to the opposite, a halving of productionor worse in far fewer than 20 years.
Please ask refining CEOs and their Boards how they will behave as Corporate profits fail.
Sincerely yours,
Doug Grandt
mailto:[email protected]://www.wsj.com/articles/suncor-energy-cuts-capital-spending-due-to-low-oil-prices-1421188673http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Oilhttp://grist.org/news/blame-canada-greedy-for-oil-money-the-country-is-turning-into-a-rogue-petrostate/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boreal_forest_of_Canadahttp://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bitumenhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oil_sandshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athabasca_oil_sandshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stranded_asset
-
8/9/2019 19 Mar 2015 Letter to US Senate Ctee on Energy & Natural Resources
19/22
Douglas A. GrandtPO Box 6603
Lincoln, NE 68506 (510) 432-1452
March 19, 2015
Senator Elizabeth WarrenSenate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources317 Hart Senate O!ce Building Washington, D.C. 20510
Re: Oil Refining - Considering future eventualities versus the myopia of the present
Dear Senator Warren,
What is ENERGY INDEPENDENCE, really? With Saudi Arabia’s decision to keep the flow ofoil high to retain market share, they have hijacked the world with a flood of oil at reduced price,some say with the explicit intention of destroying the economics of unconventional deposits ofshale oil and tarsands. Do they intend to extract all of their resources—before the end of oil?
The March 1, 2015 edition of Washinton Specter raises the issue squarely front and center:
Late 21st-century graduate students of business studying the growing problem of strandedassets will almost certainly focus on the history of Canada’s Athabasca Oil Sand (aka tarsands). The case studies they read will either describe the gradual abandonment of theworld’s largest reserve of bituminous crude or they will read about the tar sands’ miraculouslast-minute escape from becoming the world’s largest stranded asset. For either outcome,the turning point they will look back on is just about now.
In some respects Alberta’s gigantic deposits of bitumen, a dense mixture of sand and heavycrude oil, third in size only to the reserves of Saudi Arabia and Venezuela, were strandedfrom the start by location. Situated in the heart of a vast boreal forest at the center of a verylarge continent, they are hundreds of miles from the nearest refinery and thousands morefrom navigable tidewater.
Of course, some of Alberta’s crude has made its way to market, but so much slower than itcould have, or was projected to, that producers, refiners, shippers, banks and otherinvestors in tar-sands development are beginning to wonder whether they have backed agood play by investing over $160 billion to turn tar into oil.
So the economic stranding process has already begun. Five global energy giants—Shell, Total, Suncor, Statoil and Occidental—have cut bait on major bitumen deposits in
Alberta, in which they had already invested billions. Suncor has just slashed another billiondollars from its capital spending program and $800 million more from operating expenses.
And as oil prices slide lower, commercial and investment banks are reconsidering futureunderwritings. An industry that recently envisioned doubling production over the next20 years is now looking at something closer to the opposite, a halving of productionor worse in far fewer than 20 years.
Please ask refining CEOs and their Boards how they will behave as Corporate profits fail.
Sincerely yours,
Doug Grandt
http://www.wsj.com/articles/suncor-energy-cuts-capital-spending-due-to-low-oil-prices-1421188673http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Oilhttp://grist.org/news/blame-canada-greedy-for-oil-money-the-country-is-turning-into-a-rogue-petrostate/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boreal_forest_of_Canadahttp://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bitumenhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oil_sandshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athabasca_oil_sandshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stranded_assetmailto:[email protected]
-
8/9/2019 19 Mar 2015 Letter to US Senate Ctee on Energy & Natural Resources
20/22
Douglas A. GrandtPO Box 6603
Lincoln, NE 68506 (510) 432-1452
March 19, 2015
Senator Ron WydenSenate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources221 Dirksen Senate O!ce Building Washington, D.C. 20510
Re: Oil Refining - Considering future eventualities versus the myopia of the present
Dear Senator Wyden,
What is ENERGY INDEPENDENCE, really? With Saudi Arabia’s decision to keep the flow ofoil high to retain market share, they have hijacked the world with a flood of oil at reduced price,some say with the explicit intention of destroying the economics of unconventional deposits ofshale oil and tarsands. Do they intend to extract all of their resources—before the end of oil?
The March 1, 2015 edition of Washinton Specter raises the issue squarely front and center:
Late 21st-century graduate students of business studying the growing problem of strandedassets will almost certainly focus on the history of Canada’s Athabasca Oil Sand (aka tarsands). The case studies they read will either describe the gradual abandonment of theworld’s largest reserve of bituminous crude or they will read about the tar sands’ miraculouslast-minute escape from becoming the world’s largest stranded asset. For either outcome,the turning point they will look back on is just about now.
In some respects Alberta’s gigantic deposits of bitumen, a dense mixture of sand and heavycrude oil, third in size only to the reserves of Saudi Arabia and Venezuela, were strandedfrom the start by location. Situated in the heart of a vast boreal forest at the center of a verylarge continent, they are hundreds of miles from the nearest refinery and thousands morefrom navigable tidewater.
Of course, some of Alberta’s crude has made its way to market, but so much slower than itcould have, or was projected to, that producers, refiners, shippers, banks and otherinvestors in tar-sands development are beginning to wonder whether they have backed agood play by investing over $160 billion to turn tar into oil.
So the economic stranding process has already begun. Five global energy giants—Shell, Total, Suncor, Statoil and Occidental—have cut bait on major bitumen deposits in
Alberta, in which they had already invested billions. Suncor has just slashed another billiondollars from its capital spending program and $800 million more from operating expenses.
And as oil prices slide lower, commercial and investment banks are reconsidering futureunderwritings. An industry that recently envisioned doubling production over the next20 years is now looking at something closer to the opposite, a halving of productionor worse in far fewer than 20 years.
Please ask refining CEOs and their Boards how they will behave as Corporate profits fail.
Sincerely yours,
Doug Grandt
http://www.wsj.com/articles/suncor-energy-cuts-capital-spending-due-to-low-oil-prices-1421188673http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Oilhttp://grist.org/news/blame-canada-greedy-for-oil-money-the-country-is-turning-into-a-rogue-petrostate/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boreal_forest_of_Canadahttp://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bitumenhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oil_sandshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athabasca_oil_sandshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stranded_assetmailto:[email protected]
-
8/9/2019 19 Mar 2015 Letter to US Senate Ctee on Energy & Natural Resources
21/22
Douglas A. GrandtPO Box 6603
Lincoln, NE 68506 (510) 432-1452
March 19, 2015
Senator Bernie SandersSenate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources332 Dirksen Senate O!ce Building Washington, D.C. 20510
Re: Oil Refining - Considering future eventualities versus the myopia of the present
Dear Senator Sanders,
What is ENERGY INDEPENDENCE, really? With Saudi Arabia’s decision to keep the flow ofoil high to retain market share, they have hijacked the world with a flood of oil at reduced price,some say with the explicit intention of destroying the economics of unconventional deposits ofshale oil and tarsands. Do they intend to extract all of their resources—before the end of oil?
The March 1, 2015 edition of Washinton Specter raises the issue squarely front and center:
Late 21st-century graduate students of business studying the growing problem of strandedassets will almost certainly focus on the history of Canada’s Athabasca Oil Sand (aka tarsands). The case studies they read will either describe the gradual abandonment of theworld’s largest reserve of bituminous crude or they will read about the tar sands’ miraculouslast-minute escape from becoming the world’s largest stranded asset. For either outcome,the turning point they will look back on is just about now.
In some respects Alberta’s gigantic deposits of bitumen, a dense mixture of sand and heavycrude oil, third in size only to the reserves of Saudi Arabia and Venezuela, were strandedfrom the start by location. Situated in the heart of a vast boreal forest at the center of a verylarge continent, they are hundreds of miles from the nearest refinery and thousands morefrom navigable tidewater.
Of course, some of Alberta’s crude has made its way to market, but so much slower than itcould have, or was projected to, that producers, refiners, shippers, banks and otherinvestors in tar-sands development are beginning to wonder whether they have backed agood play by investing over $160 billion to turn tar into oil.
So the economic stranding process has already begun. Five global energy giants—Shell, Total, Suncor, Statoil and Occidental—have cut bait on major bitumen deposits in
Alberta, in which they had already invested billions. Suncor has just slashed another billiondollars from its capital spending program and $800 million more from operating expenses.
And as oil prices slide lower, commercial and investment banks are reconsidering futureunderwritings. An industry that recently envisioned doubling production over the next20 years is now looking at something closer to the opposite, a halving of productionor worse in far fewer than 20 years.
Please ask refining CEOs and their Boards how they will behave as Corporate profits fail.
Sincerely yours,
Doug Grandt
mailto:[email protected]://www.wsj.com/articles/suncor-energy-cuts-capital-spending-due-to-low-oil-prices-1421188673http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Oilhttp://grist.org/news/blame-canada-greedy-for-oil-money-the-country-is-turning-into-a-rogue-petrostate/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boreal_forest_of_Canadahttp://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bitumenhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oil_sandshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athabasca_oil_sandshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stranded_asset
-
8/9/2019 19 Mar 2015 Letter to US Senate Ctee on Energy & Natural Resources
22/22
Douglas A. GrandtPO Box 6603
Lincoln, NE 68506 (510) 432-1452
March 19, 2015
Senator Angus KingSenate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources359 Dirksen Senate O!ce Building Washington, D.C. 20510
Re: Oil Refining - Considering future eventualities versus the myopia of the present
Dear Senator King,
What is ENERGY INDEPENDENCE, really? With Saudi Arabia’s decision to keep the flow ofoil high to retain market share, they have hijacked the world with a flood of oil at reduced price,some say with the explicit intention of destroying the economics of unconventional deposits ofshale oil and tarsands. Do they intend to extract all of their resources—before the end of oil?
The March 1, 2015 edition of Washinton Specter raises the issue squarely front and center:
Late 21st-century graduate students of business studying the growing problem of strandedassets will almost certainly focus on the history of Canada’s Athabasca Oil Sand (aka tarsands). The case studies they read will either describe the gradual abandonment of theworld’s largest reserve of bituminous crude or they will read about the tar sands’ miraculouslast-minute escape from becoming the world’s largest stranded asset. For either outcome,the turning point they will look back on is just about now.
In some respects Alberta’s gigantic deposits of bitumen, a dense mixture of sand and heavycrude oil, third in size only to the reserves of Saudi Arabia and Venezuela, were strandedfrom the start by location. Situated in the heart of a vast boreal forest at the center of a verylarge continent, they are hundreds of miles from the nearest refinery and thousands morefrom navigable tidewater.
Of course, some of Alberta’s crude has made its way to market, but so much slower than itcould have, or was projected to, that producers, refiners, shippers, banks and otherinvestors in tar-sands development are beginning to wonder whether they have backed agood play by investing over $160 billion to turn tar into oil.
So the economic stranding process has already begun. Five global energy giants—Shell, Total, Suncor, Statoil and Occidental—have cut bait on major bitumen deposits in
Alberta, in which they had already invested billions. Suncor has just slashed another billiondollars from its capital spending program and $800 million more from operating expenses.
And as oil prices slide lower, commercial and investment banks are reconsidering futureunderwritings. An industry that recently envisioned doubling production over the next20 years is now looking at something closer to the opposite, a halving of productionor worse in far fewer than 20 years.
Please ask refining CEOs and their Boards how they will behave as Corporate profits fail.
Sincerely yours,
Do g Grandt
http://www.wsj.com/articles/suncor-energy-cuts-capital-spending-due-to-low-oil-prices-1421188673http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Oilhttp://grist.org/news/blame-canada-greedy-for-oil-money-the-country-is-turning-into-a-rogue-petrostate/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boreal_forest_of_Canadahttp://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bitumenhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oil_sandshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athabasca_oil_sandshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stranded_asset