LONDON, Jan. 26 (UPI) -- Plans to explore tar sands in Canada will be scaled back in order to focus on conventional oil and gas reserves, executives at Royal Dutch Shell said.
Peter Voser, the chief at Royal Dutch Shell, told The Financial Times in London that expansion in Canadian tar sands will be "much slower" than previous years.
His comments reflect not only a break in the strategy outlined by his predecessor, Jeroen van der Veer, but also a sign the British supermajor is optimistic about its conventional oil and gas reserves.
"Over the past two years and certainly over the past six to eight months, I've taken the pace out of (tar sands) because we have enough other growth opportunities," he said.
Voser said that the costs of exploiting tar sands in Canada's Alberta province made the region less attractive than conventional sources.
Other exploration and production companies expressed similar views, though ConocoPhillips and Total said last week they would continue to explore unconventional resources, the Times said.
Voser said his company would look to the Gulf of Mexico, Australia and Kazakhstan as sources of growth for 2012.
