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Alberta industry has recruited a star communicator. Pat Nelson, the province’s first woman energy and finance minister back when she held a Calgary seat from 1989 to 2004, has stepped up as vice-chair and chief voice of the fledgling In Situ Oil Sands Alliance (IOSA).

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After living up close and personal with on-again, off-again oil sands development for half a century, residents of Alberta’s bitumen belt know better than to rely on hazy forecasts of world supply, demand, prices, costs and environmental policy. In the communities where it operates, the industry likewise prefers honest candor about future prospects and makes a point of staying away from raising false hopes or spreading excessive gloom. (more…)

A humbling heritage of setbacks taught leaders in the early oil sands developments not to be cocky and to avoid rash promises (more…)

Boyhood dreams of power come true in an Edmonton-based crane chain forged with Alberta and Idaho talent, Seattle money and mechanical muscle (more…)

The first mega oil sands plants built from scratch by home-grown Alberta firms waste no time gloating and face up to fresh challenges
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Notes on family life in the wild, wild Alberta north

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The CANOL Pipeline Construction Project

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After 40 years and $30 billion of investment, the Alberta oilsands industry is now well into its second wave growth target of two million bpd output by 2010. And there’s no shortage of media and public commentary on how the industry, and Alberta, is mismanaging the project. So, what about the so-called third wave of development – the really big pulse that is expected to create at least another 32,000 direct jobs, draw upwards of $100 billion in additional investment and apply even more pressure to produce the resource in a socially and environmentally responsible way as it shoots for five million bpd by 2030? With labour shortages, rising material costs, increasingly skeptical stakeholder interventions and a media gorging itself on as much negative news it can find or create, can the industry realistically make these targets? Former Dome Petroleum executive Gordon Kelly went into this media-ized heart of darkness and came away with a personal perspective on why the outlook for the industry appears very encouraging. (more…)