Thursday, April 22, 2010

BP shareholders defeat oilsands resolution

BP shareholders overwhelmingly rejected a resolution that would have required the company to report on the environmental, financial and reputational risks of developing Canadian oilsands projects. The resolution was rejected by 85 percent of shareholders voting.
BP was one of four major oil companies involved in oilsands extraction targeted for such shareholder resolutions. The other three, Shell, ConocoPhillips, and ExxonMobil, have their shareholder meetings in May.
Besides being more expensive to extract, crude oil derived from oil sands, also known as tar sands, emits 20 percent more CO2 over its life cycle than oil from conventional sources.
However, the rising price of oil, combined with the prospect of a major new source in a friendly, stable nation, makes such development attractive, and Canada’s tar sands contain the second largest crude oil reserves in the world after Saudi Arabia.

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