Shell, Exxon Tap `High Cost’ Oil Sands, Gas as Reserves Dwindle

Shell Canada Ltd. Chief Executive Officer Clive Mather says oil from his Athabasca project, where tar sands are boiled to produce crude, can cost twice as much as drilling in the North Sea. And it’s worth every cent, he says.

“We’re damn close” to the peak in conventional oil production, Boone Pickens, who oversees more than $1 billion in energy-related investments at his Dallas hedge fund firm, said in an interview in New York Feb. 16. “I think we’re there.” Suncor Energy Inc., the world’s second-biggest oil-sands miner, is his largest holding.

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