Jacobs Receives contRact fRom

nexen

Engineering and Procurement Services for Long Lake Base Plant Projects Jacobs Engineering Group Inc. announced today that it received a three-year contract from Nexen Energy ULC for engineering and procurement services for the Long Lake oil sands facility. Long Lake is an integrated Steam Assisted Gravity Drainage (SAGD) and upgrading operation that uses a proprietary OrCrude™ technology as well as hydrocracking and gasification to produce Premium Synthetic Crude (PSC™) oil. The Long Lake site is located approximately 40 km southeast of Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada. “We are delighted to expand on our relationship with Nexen at the Long Lake site and provide them with engineering and procurement services. Our strength in Sustaining Capital project delivery combined with our team’s proven performance in SAGD technology supports Nexen in the growth of their oil sands facilities.”Officials did not disclose the contract value. Jacobs is delivering a portfolio of capital projects, the outcome of which is expected to make improvements to sustain capacity and improve efficiency at the facility. The scope of Jacobs’ portfolio includes all phases of engineering and procurement services in order to meet the facility’s production goals. In making the announcement, Jacobs Group Vice President Mike Coyle stated, “We are delighted to expand on our relationship with Nexen at the Long Lake site and provide them with engineering and procurement services. Our strength in Sustaining Capital project delivery combined with our team’s proven performance in SAGD technology supports Nexen in the growth of their oil sands facilities.” Jacobs is one of the world’s largest and most diverse providers of technical, professional, and construction services. Statements made in this release that

are not based on historical fact are forward-looking statements. We base these forward-looking statements on management’s current estimates and expectations as well as currently available competitive, financial and economic data. Forward-looking statements, however, are inherently uncertain. There are a variety of factors that could cause business results to differ materially from our forward-looking statements. For a description of some of the factors which may occur that could cause actual results to differ from our forward-looking statements please refer to our 2012 Form 10-K, and in particular the discussions contained under Items 1 - Business, 1A - Risk Factors, 3 - Legal Proceedings, and 7 - Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations. We do not undertake to update any forward-looking statements made herein. albeRta’s oil sands bRing Jobs, seRvices

and despaiR

Activists taking part in the annual ‘Healing Walk’ through the tar sands site in Fort McMurray, Canada, call for the expansion of the energy project to end. Credit: Keepers of the AthabascaNEW YORK, Aug 05 (IPS) - “First the bugs began to disappear,” says Eriel Deranger, spokesperson for

Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation.By Deranger’s account, her small community of Fort Chipewyan is increasingly affected by the expansion of the world’s third largest crude oil deposit, the Athabasca tar sands of Alberta, Canada.3In the last decade, the town of Fort Chipewyan in northeastern Alberta has witnessed its local caribou herds threatened with extinction, a decline in the numbers of migratory birds, and elevated rates of certain types of cancer.An independent study conducted from 2006 to 2009 was inconclusive about the cause of the rise in cancer.“The most recent statistics indicate that overall rates of cancer are not higher in Fort Chipewyan compared to the Alberta average,” John Muir, spokesperson for Alberta Health Services, told IPS.“However, the rate is higher for specific cancers such as lung cancer. Independent medical studies have found no causal links between oil sands development and the community health downstream.”Many locals do not believe it is a coincidence that cancer rates and tar sands production have both increased. Nevertheless, the community is pleased with its new health facilities, which were largely

paid for by the oil company Suncor.Oil companies continue to heavily fund projects for Native people in northeastern Alberta. In 2009, they donated more than 23 million dollars to organizations in the region, including youth and community programs. Yet for a lot of local indigenous people, this support is bittersweet.Like many northern indigenous communities, Fort Chipewyan has struggled economically since the fur trade, on which it heavily depended, was outlawed in the early 1970s. Now, with fears of contamination compounding the hardships of living off the land, many residents have turned to the tar sands for employment.This is a move encouraged by oil companies, one of which provides a fly in/fly out service every two weeks for its workers from the isolated town.“ industry is proud of the solid relationship it has with Aboriginal people; has created mutually beneficial employment and business opportunities,” Geraldine Anderson of the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers told IPS.The town’s elders, however, have mixed feelings about younger generations leaving to work in the tar sands.“The elders who lived through the end of the fur trade, and then the

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depression; are now seeing this resurgence,” Deranger says. “This economy on the one hand is ensuring that their families are fed; and are allowing new and better health facilities; people are able to live well.“However it’s also going hand in hand with the loss of land, the loss of culture, the loss of identity.”Deranger explained that a deep understanding and connection with the land is central to the culture of indigenous people.“The blades of grass, the leaves on the trees, the medicine, the water, the animals: they are our brothers and sisters and cousins; the land is where we learnt to be human and self-sufficient,” she said.Deranger says that there has been a surge in the numbers of Fort Chipewyan tar sands workers taking drugs and alcohol. She attributes this to the racism they face in the workplace as well as the psychological trauma of leaving their land.“We are seeing increases in the cases of post-traumatic stress disorder because they are watching the destruction of their ancestors. And this is why we are seeing an epidemic of substance abuse; they are trying to numb that pain,” Deranger told IPS.Covering 142,200 square kilometres, the tar sands span an area the size of New York State. Only 20 percent of the deposit has thus far been mined and it is estimated that the Athabasca tar sands have the potential to produce three million barrels of oil per day for the next 150 years.Environmentalists say that mining tar sands oil produces three to five times more greenhouse gas emissions than conventional crude. Large amounts of water and natural gas are required to heat and separate oily tar; or bitumen; from the sand.Extracting one barrel of oil from the tar sands requires 650 cubic feet of natural gas, according to Shell Canada figures.Shell, one of the world’s largest oil companies, estimates that by 2050, only 30 percent of the world’s energy sources will be will be renewable, with the remaining 70 percent coming from fossil fuels and nuclear energy.There is a huge incentive for oil companies to expand. If U.S. President Barack Obama gives the go-ahead for the expansion of the Keystone XL pipeline, oil would be transported all the way from Alberta to Houston, Texas.This is a worrying prospect for Deranger who believes that expansion has already committed a “cultural genocide” against her community.

Being both an economic catalyst and environmental hazard, the tar sands pose a difficult dilemma for many Fort Chipewyan residents.“We need these jobs; because there are members that can’t pay their bills and children are starving. Our people are being held as economic hostages in the race to develop our homeland,” Deranger says.Despite a pledge by the oil companies to reduce environmental contamination, it still occurs. For the last six weeks, oil has been continuously leaking from the ground into the forests of Cold Lake, Eastern Alberta. Attempts to stop it have so far failed.The continuing expansion of the tar sands is viewed by some as a practical solution to the world’s increasing demand for energy, and by scientists and climate activists on both sides of the border as a catastrophe. For local indigenous people who live at ground zero, their traditional culture is in jeopardy.

gibson, logistics fiRm to build 140,000-

bpd oil sands Rail teRminal

Canadian midstream company Gibson Energy Inc and logistics provider U.S. Development Group (USDG) said on Tuesday they will build a 140,000-barrel-per-day terminal in Hardisty, Alberta, to ship oil sands crude by rail. The project would be the largest terminal for western Canada, where demand to move crude by rail has been gathering pace as producers look for ways to ease congested export pipelines. It also underlines how the runaway fuel-train accident that killed 47 people in the town of Lac-Megantic, Quebec, last month appeared unlikely to halt Canada’s crude-by-rail boom. The terminal, due to be operational by the first quarter of 2014, would be able to handle two unit trains of up to 120 railcars per day and load multiple grades of crude oil for transport to refining markets across North America. Hardisty is one of the two main storage hubs for the Canadian oil sands and the starting point for export pipelines to the U.S. Midwest. ‘The Hardisty Rail Terminal will give Canadian oil producers flexibility to obtain the best value for their product and (give) refiners expanded access to price advantaged crude oil supplies,’ said Mike Day, USDG’s vice president. Lack of space on pipelines led to crude

bottlenecks and deep discounts on heavy Canadian crude, compared to the West Texas Intermediate benchmark earlier this year as producers struggled to get access to markets in the United States. Term contracts have already been signed with four customers for approximately 100,000 bpd and Rick Wise, Gibson’s senior vice president of operations, said discussions were underway with several customers about further shipping commitments. The rail terminal would be served by Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd, and all crude loaded there would be pumped from Gibson’s 4-million-barrel Hardisty crude terminal, located 5 kilometres away. ‘The Hardisty Rail Terminal will be a significant rail hub and is located on

CP’s high-capacity north main line with efficient access to the refining markets across North America,’ said Tracy Robinson, CP vice president of energy and merchandise.

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