Oil sands projects remain highly profitable for operators and governments and highly promising as a source of oil supply, according to an annual study by the Canadian Energy Research Institute.

BP North America has signed an agreement to lease 84,000 acres in Trumbull County, Ohio, 30-40 miles east of Cleveland, for future oil and gas production in the Utica/Point Pleasant shale formation.

China National Petroleum Corp. (CNPC) and Shell China Exploration & Production Co. Ltd. signed a production-sharing contract for shale gas exploration, development, and production on the Fushun-Yongchuan block in China’s Sichuan basin.

MEG Energy Corp. will begin formal stakeholder consultation leading to regulatory applications to develop oil sands leases in the Surmont area of Alberta.

Suncor Energy expects one of its two bitumen upgraders in Fort McMurray, Alta., to be offline for 3-5 weeks while it conducts unplanned maintenance related to fractionator performance.

Alberta’s Energy Resources Conservation Board has begun its review of applications by Laricina Energy Ltd. for expansion of the Germain commercial demonstration oil sands project in the west Athabasca region.

Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. drilled a record number of wells and achieved record quarterly production totaling more than 657,000 boe/d during fourth-quarter 2011, and plans are on schedule for the Horizon bitumen upgrader to resume full operations by the end of March.

The US natural gas industry must continue to focus on ensuring that shale gas is produced in an environmentally safe manner in concert with continuing to disclose information about operations to help minimize public opposition to development, panelists told conference attendees Mar. 5 at IHS CERA Week in Houston.

Alberta’s Energy Resources Conservation Board has opened applications for the Frontier Oil Sands Mines Project for comment after the operator agreed to a deal that would give it 100% interest in the development about 100 km north of Fort McMurray.

Producers active in the oil sands of Canada will collaborate to improve environmental performance under a new group to be led by a former official of the federal government.

Encana Natural Gas Inc. has opened Louisiana’s first liquefied natural gas fueling station at Frierson along Interstate 49 about 15 miles south of Shreveport.

Enerplus Corp., Calgary, will spend $190 million in the Marcellus shale region in 2012, about 80% of which it will allocate to nonoperated interests in northeastern Pennsylvania.

A European Union technical committee handed Alberta producers a “small victory” by declining to declare fuels made from bitumen to be greater emitters of greenhouse gases than those from other types of crude oil.