The Financial Post reports according to a new outlook from the Construction Owners Association of Alberta, the expected future labour need for 2011 is up significantly from this time last year. At the same time, the Construction Sector Council recently published a forecast that suggests that future trades industry labour supply will be limited.
An 2011 report by Peters & Co., an oil sands investment house, predicted investment in Alberta’s oil sands was set to reach a staggering $180bn over the next decade – 20% more than was spent during the height of the last boom.
“If the estimates are correct, then it appears we may be on the brink of another hyper-cost inflation period,” Phil Skolnick, a Canaccord analyst said.
Last week MINING.com reported on troubles in the next oil sands frontier – Africa:
Oil sands mining are not typically associated with Africa and the continent’s two mega-projects, one in the Congo Basin and another on the island of Madagascar, are running into trouble. The $3bn deal between the Republic of Congo and Eni, Italy’s state-owned oil major, runs out this year amid criticism about its lack of transparency and environmental impact. In Madagascar, the partner of France’s Total, Madagascar Oil declared a force majeur after the Malagasy government apparently threatened to seize one of the London-listed company’s oil fields.
Since 2000 Canada’s oil sands output has more than doubled: from 600,000 barrels to about 1.5m barrels per day in 2010. Canada supplies 2m barrels per day or 22% of US crude oil imports, up from 15% a decade earlier. The sands’ 175bn barrels of recoverable oil places Canadian oil reserves third in the world behind Saudi Arabia and Venezuela.