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Economy, low prices cool off Alberta’s oil-sands boom

Plunging oil prices have slowed costly project to tap Canada’s huge energy reserves, adding to concerns of a dramatic oil-price spike when the economy recovers.

Bitumen has been mined in Alberta since 1967, though for a long time it wasn’t considered profitable. It wasn’t even considered oil.

"We were kind of a curiosity," said Don Thompson, head of the Oil Sands Developers Group, based in Fort McMurray.

All that changed when oil companies devised better ways to recover this sticky type of oil. High crude prices and an increasingly hostile international environment for oil exploration also provided a boost.

By Ángel González

Seattle Times business reporter

Full Story: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2008451310_oilsandsbiz30.html

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