Oil sands' rivals gaining ground
SHAWN MCCARTHY AND NORVAL SCOTT
October 31, 2008
OTTAWA, CALGARY -- Alberta's juggernaut has run into a classic squeeze play.
Even as they cope with sharply lower crude prices, Canadian oil sands producers are confronting a deteriorating competitive position in the worldwide battle for increasingly tight investment dollars.
While the global industry has been squeezed between soaring project costs and lower prices, Alberta's oil sands producers are being hit harder because they are more capital intensive than other more conventional projects.
In a report released yesterday, New York-based management consultant McKinsey & Co. said the Canadian industry has been losing ground against other global producers, with whom they compete in the key Gulf Coast and Midwest markets in the U.S.
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