Resource Group International Inc. (fka RSGR)

[halpern6]

have a feeling this action could have something to do with their "oilsands" projects...from the company website:interesting read indeed...

Oil Sands
Oil sands contain sand, clay, water and bitumen, a heavy, tar like, viscous form of crude oil, with a density of approximately eight degrees to 14 degrees API.(1) Bitumen-bearing geologic formations, typically containing up to 18 percent bitumen saturation by weight(1), can be situated near the surface or hundreds of feet below. Recovery of oil sands from formations above 75 metres (250 feet) is by open-pit mining; for deeper formations, in-situ recovery techniques such as steam-assisted gravity drainage (SAGD) are used.(2) Developments in the oil sands industry in Canada to date have been focused primarily on Alberta.

The Alberta Energy Utilities Board (AEUB) estimates there are 1.6 trillion barrels of bitumen resource in place in Alberta of which 315 billion barrels are thought to be recoverable.(3) Initial established reserves (some 178 billion barrels) are considered sufficient to meet 250 years of Canadian crude oil demand at current rates.(1) There are three main deposits of oil sands in Alberta: Athabasca, which represents about 80 percent, Cold Lake (12 percent) and Peace River (8 percent).(5) Together, they occupy an area of about 140,000 square kilometres (54,000 square miles).(3)

North America’s energy needs are increasingly being met by bitumen produced from mining and in-situ operations in Alberta's oil sands. In 2005, Canada's crude oil and equivalent production totalled about 2.5 million barrels/day; more than two-thirds of this, 1.7 million barrels/day, came from Alberta, which included about one million barrels/day from the oil sands.(4) Production from the oil sands is expected to more than double by 2010 and, by 2015, to increase to three million barrels/day.(5) Total crude oil production is estimated to grow to 4.6 million barrels/day in 2015 and then to 4.9 million barrels/day by 2020.(4) Saskatchewan is Canada’s second largest oil producer (after Alberta) and produces about 17 percent of Canada’s total oil production.(6)

Exploration for commercially viable oil sands deposits has traditionally focused on Alberta, resulting in the establishment of mining projects and in situ projects in the Athabasca oil sands region and in-situ projects in Cold Lake and Peace River deposits. Production from the world’s first commercial oil sands mine came on stream in 1967. The second mining operation came on stream in 1973; commercial in-situ projects also began contributing production from deeper oil sands deposits in the 1970s.(2) At the beginning of 2006, there were three mining projects and 12 in-situ projects operating in the oil sands in Alberta and more than 60 projects in various stages of planning.(5) The lead time for production from an oil sands project is generally a minimum of seven to ten years from initial exploration.