The oil giant of the west, Alberta, has had more oil sands areas put under development.
(supplement to post of 03 Dec 09)

Petrochina has invested $1.8 billion in the MacKay and Dover fields, for a 60% interest in these Athabaska Oil Co. leased fields. Both contain billions of bbls. of recoverable reserves from the oil sands. Chinese companies are looking for more oil sands opportunities.
The Kearl oil sands, Imperial Oil (Exxon-Mobil), notice of development previously announced, is under active development.

The Cold Lake oil sands field (Imperial Oil) has joined two other oil sands fields that have produced over one billion bbls. The others are owned by Suncor (a Canadian company) and Syncrude (a consortium of Imperial Oil, Suncor, Conoco, and Mocal (Japanese).

As previously noted, the Alberta government estimates actual oil sands production costs at $35.00/bbl; current prices over $75.00/bbl. offer ample opportunity for large profit.

In Iraq, the Angolan company has announced that it will proceed with development of its field near Mosul, despite continued terrorist activity in the area.