The biggest lease holder in Canada’s oil sands ISN'T Exxon Mobil or Chevron---IT'S THE KOCH BROTHERS

[kpete]

Last edited Thu Mar 20, 2014, 06:07 PM - Edit history (1)

You might expect the biggest lease owner in Canada's oil sands, or tar sands, to be one of the international oil giants, like Exxon Mobil or Royal Dutch Shell. But that isn't the case. The biggest lease holder in the northern Alberta oil sands is a subsidiary of Koch Industries, the privately-owned cornerstone of the fortune of conservative Koch brothers Charles and David.

The Koch Industries subsidiary holds leases on 1.1 million acres -- an area nearly the size of Delaware -- in the oil sands region of Alberta, Canada, according to an activist group that studied Alberta provincial records. The Post confirmed the group’s findings with Alberta Energy, the provincial government’s ministry of energy. Separately, industry sources familiar with oil sands leases said Koch’s lease holdings could be closer to two million acres. The companies with the next biggest net acreage positions in oil sands leases are Conoco Phillips and Shell, both close behind.

What is Koch Industries doing there? The company wouldn't comment on its holdings or strategy, but it appears to be a long-term investment that could produce tens of thousands of barrels of the region's thick brand of crude oil in the next three years and perhaps hundreds of thousands of barrels a few years after that.

The finding about the Koch acreage is likely to inflame the already contentious debate about the Keystone XL Pipeline and spur activists and environmentalists seeking to slow or stop planned expansions of production from the northern Alberta oil sands, or tar sands. Environmental groups have already made opposing the pipeline their leading cause this spring and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has called the Koch brothers Charles and David “un-American” and “shadowy billionaires.”


MORE:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2014/03/20/the-biggest-land-owner-in-canadas-oil-sands-isnt-exxon-mobil-or-conoco-phillips-its-the-koch-brothers/

[Octafish]

1. Well well well.

Seems they're friends with just everybody in Wall Street on the Potomac.

[WillyT]

2. K & R !!! - Have You See This ???

DULink: http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024697829

[Samantha]

3. I have read several sources which say The Koch Brothers can potentially make 100 billion dollars

from the Keystone pipeline. Forbes dispute this. But do a Google search and you will see Forbes is in the minority.

Sam

[think]

4. Figures.... /nt

[polly7]

5. A bit more on this ...

http://election.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=3006889

By David Sassoon at InsideClimate
Thu May 10, 2012 4:30am EDT

Long involvement in Canada's tar sands has been central to Koch Industries' evolution and positions the billionaire brothers for a new oil boom.

By David Sassoon, InsideClimate News

Over the last decade, Charles and David Koch have emerged into public view as billionaire philanthropists pushing a libertarian brand of political activism that presses a large footprint on energy and climate issues. They have created and supported non-profit organizations, think tanks and political groups that work to undermine climate science, environmental regulation and clean energy. They are also top donors to politicians, most of them Republicans, who support the oil industry and deny any human role in global warming.

What is less well documented are the many Koch businesses that benefit from the brothers' efforts to push the center of American political discourse rightward, closer to their own convictions. At the top of the list are the Koch family's long and deep investments in Canada's heavy oil industry, which have been central to the company's initial growth and subsequent diversification since 1959.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/05/10/idUS427145980520120510

[Auntie Bush]

6. Now I'm even more angry than ever to have the XLP up and running.

It makes me sick to think the Koch brothers will probably make billions on this pipeline deal.

[WillyT]

7. Yes... We Can Enrich Two Brothers, Dismantle Our Democracy, And Destroy The Environment In Just

One Project!

[Auntie Bush]

9. Scary and sickening isn't it?

:scary:

[KamaAina]

11. "Scary" is :scared:.

[Thinkingabout]

8. Guess who owns the refinery the keystone will be piped to?

If you guess one owned by Koch Industry. It is all about the Koch brothers getting the oil to the coast line to get on the world market and give them more money in their pockets to buy off more people.

[KamaAina]

10. Does the administration know this?

If so, why are they still pimping KXL?!

[Rex]

12. Very interesting!

Canadians be wary! You have our two Disciples of Death in your midsts!

[applegrove]

13. Someone estimated that if the Keystone

pipeline goes ahead the Kochs will make 100 billion dollars.

[wandy]

14. Greg Palast pointed this out over a year ago........................

The Koch brothers Hugo Chavez and the XL Pipeline

Here’s where a little lesson in oil chemistry comes in. You can’t just throw any old crude oil into an oil refinery. These giant filth factories are actually quite sensitive. The refineries of the Texas Gulf Coast are optimized for heavy crude.

It would cost billions of dollars to rebuild the giant Flint Hills Corpus Christi Refinery, owned by Koch Industries, to use the less-polluting Texas oil drilled nearby.

http://www.gregpalast.com/the-koch-brothers-hugo-chavez-and-the-xl-pipeline/

If KochCash wants it, it will be.
Didn't you know that Sen Vitter clames that the "Koch Brothers are two of the most patriotic Americans in the history of the Earth"
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024698979

[Kurovski]

15. Oh thank goodness that such a dreamy, patriotic set of brothers controls our energy future.

*SIGH* Senator Vitter and me wanna know where can we get a kissing poster of the fellers?

[jsr]

16. Another fun fact