Koch Industries Inc. has scrapped plans for an $800-million oil sands development, blaming economic uncertainty in Alberta and the province’s climate policies.
The Wichita, Kan.-based conglomerate, owned by the conservative billionaire Koch brothers, asked Alberta’s energy regulator to rescind the approval for the Muskwa steam-driven oil sands project.
Koch’s Canadian oil sands unit “does not believe the current nor medium-term economic environment in Alberta will provide opportunity to generate an adequate return on the required capital for construction of the Muskwa [steam-assisted gravity drainage] project,” Byron Lutes, vice-president of Koch Oil Sands Operating ULC, said in a letter to the Alberta Energy Regulator.
Jeffrey Jones – Globe and Mail – December 19, 2016.