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Exxon Mobil outlined plans Thursday that rely heavily on oil from tough to reach places, extracting it from the depths of the ocean, the frozen Arctic and the tar sands in Canada’s frozen tundra.

But oil pumped in these places tends to be much more expensive than oil from more conventional sources.

In a presentation to analysts at the New York Stock Exchange, executives from the world’s largest publicly traded oil company highlighted eight projects that started up in 2009. Three of them are what most would consider unconventional: A liquefied natural gas terminal off the Italian coast, a liquefied natural gas terminal off the English coast, and a shale natural gas facility in Colorado.

Of the eight major projects the company plans to start up in the near future, six were unconventional. They include two liquefied natural gas facilities, in Qatar and Texas, an Arctic oil production facility in Sakhalin Island off Russia’s far east coast, two deep water projects off Angola, and an oil sands project in Alberta, Canada.

In fact, some three-quarters of the company’s oil reserves are in these more expensive production areas.

What is unconventional?

Exxon boss Rex Tillerson said what’s considered conventional and unconventional is a matter of opinion, and that the company only considers 10% of its reserves to be truly unconventional. But Tillerson said the move to more unconventional sources is happening.

"We anticipate it will grow in the future, and we hope it will grow with the positions we’ve taken," he said.

But Exxon isn’t alone. Easily accessible oil is becoming harder to find, and nations that have it are demanding a bigger cut of the profits. The entire industry is confronted with drilling for more expensive oil. It’s one of the main reasons why most analysts don’t expect oil prices to return to the $20-range of the late 1990s.

Liquefied natural gas is harder to bring to market than regular gas. First the gas must be converted to liquid to transport it from its source in remote areas to where it can be used, generally close to major population centers. Then it must be converted back into a gas for usage.

Oil sands are a heavy, tar-like substance that requires lots of processing to turn into a usable oil. Shale gas lies in rock that must be cracked with chemicals and water to bring it to the surface. Projects in deep water or the Arctic require expensive infrastructure to reach the oil.

This all raises the cost. It’s thought that oil in Saudi Arabia, which is relatively easy to produce, can be pumped for as little as $5 a barrel. Costs vary greatly for unconventional projects, but can be $40 a barrel or higher.

What about gasoline prices?

When it comes to gasoline prices, Tillerson said he doesn’t expect to see much of an increase this summer, mainly due to lack of demand.

"Given the state of the economy, my guess is people aren’t feeling a whole lot better about this year’s vacation than they were last year," he said. "If there is any uptick, I’d expect it to be very modest."

On Iraq, he said the security situation seems to be improving and was hopeful Exxon can fulfill its commitment to develop a key Iraqi oil field in the coming years.

Exxon was one of several companies to recently win oil contracts in Iraq. The government there hopes the country can eventually produce as much oil as Saudi Arabia.

"They’ve been more enthusiastic about our joint work than we anticipated," said Tillerson, referring to the Exxon’s partnership with Iraq’s national oil company. "We feel reasonably positive about moving forward."

While Exxon (XOM, Fortune 500) is bullish about using natural gas to make electricity, Tillerson did not hold out much hope for using the fuel to power cars and trucks, as some in Congress, along with oilman T. Bone Pickens, have suggested.

He said natural gas is not a dense enough fuel to use in most cars and trucks, would require significant investments in infrastructure to distribute, and that it would take more time to fill up each vehicle.

"I can’t make the math work on why anybody would do that," he said. 

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Harry Markopolos spent nine years fruitlessly trying to convince the Securities & Exchange Commission that Bernard Madoff’s investment operation was a scam.

Markopolos, a former derivatives fund manager turned fraud investigator, became an instant star after Madoff’s fund imploded, emerging as one of the few sympathetic figures of the financial crisis. A self-described quant, Markopolos contends it took him five minutes to realize that Madoff’s vaunted returns were impossible.

These days, Markopolos hunts fraud at major corporations. He looks for whistleblowers at places like trade shows and bars near corporate offices and convinces them to file lawsuits under the False Claim Act. He gets a piece of any settlement.

Markopolos is still waiting for his big payday, but next week marks the debut of his book, "No One Would Listen: A True Financial Thriller," the story of his quest to expose Madoff and his Ponzi scheme.

James Bandler caught up with Markopolos in Boston recently to discuss the book, and how he’s doing with his life as an agent for whistleblowers. Edited excerpts are below:

Since Madoff, I would imagine every whistleblower in America would want to talk to you.

I’ve gotten a lot of interesting evidence mailed to me and some of it has been borderline lunacy, like, who killed Kennedy type of thing. Others have been grounded probably in a good set of facts, but they’re not my cases. The negatives are that my undercover days are over. I can’t be anonymous. I don’t want to be recognized with whistleblowers, because it would be harmful to their careers. I have to wear disguises more.

What do you have, wigs?

I don’t want to go into it, because that would be stupid. That’s operational security.

You were a whistleblower and you work with them now. What is the profile of the whistleblower’s personality?

If you don’t have a strong belief system, you’re not going to be a whistleblower. You have to be crazy-brave. The risks are all weighted to the downside.

Crazy-brave?

Yes. You cannot have self-doubt. You just have to go forward and say I believe in this country. I believe in these core values. I know if I get outed and get caught, I’ve committed economic suicide for myself and my family. I’m going to be on the industry blacklist easy payday loans.

You write that you were afraid that Madoff or shady gangster clients would try to kill you if they fingered you as the whistleblower. You took to checking under your car for bombs and you carried a gun everywhere with you.

I didn’t know if I was going to live through it.

You were so afraid of being identified by Madoff that you wore gloves (in 2002) when you handed a packet of information to an aide of Eliot Spitzer so that your fingerprints would not be on the documents. Were you being overly paranoid?

I had twin boys that were going to be born three months later, and I wanted to make sure that they would have a father. I knew that Spitzer came from a very wealthy family and that it was possible that he was a Madoff investor. (In fact, Spitzer’s family real estate company did lose money in the scandal.)

What would’ve you done differently?

I can think of two things that would’ve influenced the action and hopefully brought this to a successful resolution. One is approach Spitzer in the open. Take the risk. Shake his hand, look him in the eye, say, ‘I’m Harry Markopolos, I’m president of the 4,000-member Boston Security Analysts Society. I’m a derivatives expert and this is what I know about Bernie Madoff. He’s a fraud.’

I wish I had confronted Mr. Spitzer to his face. Or I should have gone to (Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth) Bill Galvin. He’d taken on Wall Street titans like Spitzer had. He was a hometown boy like me.

In your book, you write that when Madoff was interviewed by the SEC inspector general and asked about you, he dismissed you as a "joke in the industry." What would you tell Madoff if you met him?

I wouldn’t want to meet him. I think he’s a pathological liar and a predator. I think he’s mentally twisted, and I know a lot more about him than he knows about me. He hunted at funerals and weddings. He’s the lowest form of scum. I don’t want to meet him or his family. I don’t want anything to do with him. I don’t want to be that close to evil.

Read more of James Bandler’s interview with Markopolos 

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The Washington Convention and Sports Authority filed its own lawsuit in the dispute over a planned convention center hotel on Thursday, alleging that extortion attempts and abuse of the legal process by a local developer have paralyzed the authority’s attempt to build a convention center hotel.

Filed in D.C. Superior Court, the suit claims that Chevy Chase-based developer The JBG Cos. and two of its principals “unlawfully attempted to extort concessions” from a unit of Marriott International Inc. in negotiations over an unrelated property, the Washington Wardman Park Marriott.

JBG and CIM Group of Hollywood, Calif. are co-owners of Wardman Park and Marriott alleged in its own suit, filed Jan. 14, that JBG Managing Partner Ben Jacobs and Chief Development Officer Kenneth Finkelstein filed the suit only after trying to extract concessions from Marriot to build new housing at Wardman Park. The convention center authority, the claim reads, “has now learned that these suits have not been filed to redress legitimate grievances, but instead have been instituted by the defendants as a way of extracting concessions in unrelated business dealings defendants have with Marriott International Inc.”

The authority, the city and developers Capstone Development LLC and Quadrangle Development Corp fast cash. plan a 1,167-room Marriott Marquis for Ninth Street NW that convention planners believe can make D.C. a player for major shows and tourism dollars.

But JBG’s suit against the city, for what the developer claims was an unfair procurement process, prevents the convention center authority from issuing bonds for the project, part of more a more than $200 million package the city is providing for the project.

Greg O’Dell, president and CEO of the convention center authority, issued a statement saying, “We intend to be aggressive in protecting the authority’s interest to make this shovel-ready headquarters hotel project a reality.”

In its suit, JBG alleged that D.C. unfairly and illegally provided a sweetheart deal to Marriott and its development partners. However, the authority attributed the dispute to JBG having purchased the Wardman Park “at the height of the real estate boom, and having seen values and profits plummet in the years since, sought in July to reduce their losses at Wardman Park by seeking concessions from Marriott in connection with Marriott’s management agreement for the Wardman Park.”

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Bakers Footwear Group Inc., a St. Louis-based women’s footwear retailer, announced Friday that it no longer meets the minimum stockholders’ equity requirement needed to remain listed on the Nasdaq Capital Market.

For the quarter ended Oct. 31, Bakers reported a shareholders’ deficit of $3.5 million. The retailer said it intends to submit to Nasdaq by Dec. 29 a plan explaining how it will turn the deficit into equity and reach the minimum requirement of $2 poor credit personal loans.5 million this quarter. If the plan isn’t accepted by Nasdaq or if the plan fails, the company faces delisting from the stock exchange.

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Sales tax revenue continues to fall in Dallas and other cities across North Texas.

Dallas' sales tax revenue fell 5.3 percent for November, compared to collections for the same period in 2008. Still, it's better than the Texas average, which dropped 14.4 percent, according to state Comptroller Susan Combs.

Dallas' net payment was $14.5 million, compared to $15.4 million for the same period last year. So far this year, payments are down 9.2 percent, dropping to $205.4 million from $227 million in 2008.

Fort Worth saw its monthly payment drop a whopping 17.3 percent, to $7 million from $8.5 million a year ago. For the year, payments in Fort Worth are down 7.9 percent, to $97.8 million from $106 no fax payday loan.2 million.

Frisco saw its November collections drop 11.6 percent, Plano saw a drop of 19.1 percent, Grapevine tax revenue for the month was down 8.3 percent and Irving showed a decrease of 18 percent. Lewisville fared better than most North Texas cities, with November 2009 collections dipping less than 1 percent when compared with November 2008.

Texas collected $1.7 billion in sales taxes last month, making November the ninth consecutive month of a year-over-year decline.Combs says collections are down in all categories, including retailing, oil and gas production and construction.

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The Canadian Auto Workers says it will reaffiliate with the Ontario Federation of Labour after an absence of more than a decade.

CAW president Ken Lewenza said Friday that the union is currently talking to OFL leaders about conditions for a return that will likely come in the first quarter of next year.

"We’re not reaffiliating just to reaffiliate," Lewenza told more than 800 delegates at a CAW council meeting earlier. "We’re affiliating because we believe the labour movement needs us and we need the labour movement."

Union delegates had passed a resolution at a council meeting earlier this year to start a "constructive and respectful" dialogue that could lead to possible reaffiliation.

The CAW, one of the province’s biggest private sector unions, left the federation in 1997 after it could not get assurances of representation among the OFL’s top four officers payday loan online.

It has about 225,000 workers across the country including a majority in Ontario.

Lewenza said the labour movement in the province needs a united front in the growing attack on workers by corporations and governments.

The umbrella federation represents about 700,000 workers in scores of unions.

The split between the federation and the CAW has weakened the labour movement during the last decade as the groups pursued different strategies and agendas with less collective power, according to some labour analysts.

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The Toronto stock market fell sharply Thursday in a broad-based decline despite solid earnings reports from two of the big Canadian banks as investors opted for caution ahead of Friday's U.S. non-farm jobless report.

The S&P/TSX composite index declined 143.18 points to 11,636.55 with a report showing a surprising contraction of the U.S. service industry during November also limiting advances.

The Institute for Supply Management's non-manufacturing index fell to 48.7 from 50.6 in October. Economists had expected the index to rise to 51.5, which would show continued expansion.

Market sentiment Friday will likely be determined by the U.S. jobless report. Economists expect that employers cut 130,000 jobs last month and that the unemployment rate remained flat at 10.2 per cent.

"It's understandable that the market would tread water at this point,"" said Tim Knepp, chief investment officer of Genworth Financial Asset Management.

"Job creation is going to be the key to sustaining any kind of rally."

The Canadian dollar moved down 0.41 of a cent to 94.81 cents US.

The TSX financial sector stepped 1.3 back per cent amid reports from three major banks Thursday.

"They're bumping into resistance right now, particularly TD and CIBC are kind of at the high end of their trading ranges," said Colin Cieszynski, market analyst at CMC Markets Canada.

"We had the prices run up on anticipation of a recovery in bank earnings, and so now we're getting the recovery in bank earnings but the market had already anticipated that to a certain extent, which is why we're getting this consolidation (over the last three months)."

CIBC shares were ahead $1.52 to C$70 on the TSX after the bank reported fourth-quarter net income of $644 million or $1.56 per share, up from year-ago profit of $436 million or $1.06 per share. Revenues totalled $2.9 billion for the quarter, compared to $2.2 billion last year.

CIBC's provision for loan losses surged 91 per cent from a year ago to $424 million due to higher losses in its credit cards, unsecured personal lending and corporate lending portfolios. But provision for credit losses was down $123 million from the prior quarter, primarily due to lower losses in these same portfolios.

TD Bank Financial Group (TSX: TD) reported net income for the fourth quarter was essentially flat compared with the same period last year at just over $1 billion. TD's provision for credit losses nearly doubled to $521 million but was down from the prior quarter. Its shares fell $1.71 to $66.08 as U.S. personal and commercial banking profits tumbled 51 per cent to $122 million. And continued weakness in the U.S. real estate market brought net impaired loans higher to $879 million, a rise of 163 per cent over the same time last year payday loan.

National Bank Financial Group (TSX: NA) missed expectations reported net income of $241 million or $1.39 per share for the fourth quarter, up from year-ago profit of $70 million or 37 cents per share. Revenues came in at $1.1 billion, rising 43 per cent from $765 million last year and its shares dropped $3.78 to $60.84.

In other earnings news, shares in Bombardier Inc. (TSX: BBD.B) fell 13 cents to $4.56 after the airplane and train manufacturer said its profits fell 26 per cent to $168 million in its summer quarter amid harsh economic conditions that triggered recent layoffs. But the company said it managed to keep revenues at year-ago levels of $4.6 billion and a contract worth US$779 million with AMR Eagle Holding Corp, the parent company of American Eagle Airlines for 22 CRJ700 regional jets.

The energy sector was down 1.17 per cent as the January crude contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange slipped 14 cents to US$76.46 a barrel.

EnCana Corp. (TSX: ECA) shares were down $27.62 to $28.81 after the energy company completed its split into two companies on Monday. EnCana becomes a pure play natural gas company while Cenovus Energy Ltd. is an integrated oil company. Cenovus shares started regular trading Thursday on the TSX and were off five cents to $26.25.

The gold sector was down just over two per cent as the February bullion contract on the Nymex gained $5.30 to a record US$1,218.30 an ounce.

The base metals sector declined 1.5 per cent as March copper was down 1.35 cents at US$3.24 a pound. Sherritt International (TSX: S) lost 14 cents to C$6.48.

Market heavyweight Research In Motion Ltd. (TSX: RIM) also pressured the TSX, moving down $1.35 to $61.53.

The TSX Venture Exchange edged 0.18 of a point lower 1,461.61.

Losses also picked up in New York late in the session as the Dow Jones industrial average fell 86.53 points to 10,366.15.

The Nasdaq composite index dropped 11.89 points to 2,173.14 while the S&P 500 index ticked 9.32 points lower to 1,099.92.

In other corporate news, WestJet Airlines Ltd. (TSX: WJA) stock slipped 29 cents to $11.65 after the carrier said it expects the ongoing transition to a new reservation system will have a negative impact on its fourth-quarter passenger revenue. The Calgary-based airline said revenue is expected to be at least 11 per cent below last year.

Shares in uranium giant Cameco Corp. (TSX: CCO) gained 26 cents to $32.93 after the company approved a 17 per cent increase in the annual cash dividend to 28 cents a share from 24 cents, beginning in 2010.

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The U.S. economy seems to be on the mend, but some economists are arguing that another round of stimulus is needed to keep the recovery on track.

Congress passed the largest stimulus bill on record in February, a $787 billion package that included aid to states and local governments, money for public works projects, tax breaks and more assistance for the unemployed.

With the help of that package, most economists now believe the recession that started in December 2007 came to an end at some point this summer.

But unemployment has continued to climb, hitting a 26-year high of 10.2% in October. Now there are some worries that the economy could slip back into recession at some point next year. And that is prompting calls for another shot of federal help.

The case for more stimulus

Mark Zandi, chief economist for Moody’s Economy.com, said that between $125 billion and $150 billion in new stimulus, with about $50 billion to $60 billion of that going to further extensions in unemployment benefits beyond what was passed by Congress last week, is needed.

A big portion of the remaining new stimulus funds could be used to give more help to state and local governments. Zandi said without another stimulus package, "the odds of sliding back into recession rises with the incredibly weak labor market."

Zandi is not alone in calling for more stimulus. On Wednesday, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a think tank that concentrates on state and local government financial issues, called for additional help to states.

The center estimated that about $50 billion in additional state and local government aid is needed, and added that state budget cuts could lead to a loss of 900,000 jobs next year if there isn’t additional federal help.

Robert Greenstein, executive director of the center, said calls for more stimulus are justified because the recession has dragged on longer and unemployment has risen higher than foreseen in February.

"The magnitude of the state budget deficits that lie ahead could be a significant drag on the economy just as it is beginning to recover," he said.

Other economists argue that the original stimulus package didn’t go far enough to spur economic growth or job creation.

Gary Burtless, senior fellow at the Brookings Institute, a liberal think tank, said that it is not clear if the economy can continue to grow once the effect of February’s stimulus plan fades.

He said that while concerns about the size of the federal deficit will limit what can be approved in any additional stimulus act, a bigger danger "is that we may have an extremely weak, slow recovery in which unemployment remains high for an unnecessarily long time no credit check payday loan."

Some think existing stimulus is already working

Still, there are plenty of economists who question the need for additional stimulus.

"Rather than force feed an economy, you have to show some patience that it will perform as it did in the past," said Joseph Carson, chief economist at AllianceBernstein. "Trying to push a button and get an immediate result — economies don’t work that way."

Lakshman Achuthan, managing director of the Economic Cycle Research Institute, added that offering additional unemployment benefits might be a good idea but agreed that Congress shouldn’t hastily approve another stimulus package.

He said that by the time another round of stimulus has an actual impact, the economy would already have improved even more on its own.

"Throwing some money into [the economy] doesn’t change the direction or the fact that the [recovery] process is happening," he said.

The administration has been noncommittal about whether it would call for additional stimulus as it concentrates on the health care reform battle.

When asked about more stimulus recently, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said only that the administration would continue to look at "any idea that can help our economy become stronger."

Nadeam Elshami, a staffer for House Democratic leadership, said that another large stimulus package is not being discussed right now. But he said there have been discussions about what smaller steps can win support, such as additional help to state governments. But nothing is likely to start moving on these fronts until the debate over health care reform is complete.

Even advocates of additional stimulus acknowledge that increased government spending is a tougher sell now than at the start of the year. But Zandi said the near unanimous vote for a partial extension in unemployment benefits approved by Congress last week shows that there can be support for what he calls "smaller scale stimulus."

"Another extension in unemployment benefits to help those who are suffering the most: who is going to vote against that?" Zandi asked. 

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Costco Wholesale Corp reported a 5 percent increase in October same-store sales, helped by a weak U.S. dollar that helped push up international sales.

Analysts on average were expecting a rise of 4.7 percent in same-store sales, including the impact of fuel prices and foreign exchange, according to Thomson Reuters data.

Same-store sales at U.S. locations rose 2 percent, while international division sales surged 17 percent, the company said.

October net sales rose 7 percent to $5 payday loan with savings account.68 billion.

Excluding the impact of gasoline prices and foreign exchange, the company said U.S. comparable sales rose 3 percent, while on a local currency basis international same-store sales rose 7 percent.

(Reporting by Sakthi Prasad in Bangalore; Editing by Mike Miller)

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While foreclosure rates are easing in some of the hardest-hit cities, the crisis is beginning to expand into new metro areas.

On Wednesday, RealtyTrac released its list of cities with the biggest foreclosure problems during the third quarter. As expected, towns in California, Florida and Nevada dominated the top 10, with Las Vegas taking the top spot with a rate of 1 in 20 homes. That’s a 53% increase over the third quarter 2008.

But there was a bright spot: Half of the cities in the top 10 showed year-over-year declines in their foreclosure rates, and 60% showed improvement compared with the second quarter.

For example, second place Merced, Calif., saw foreclosures fall by 11% from last year and 13% from last quarter, to 1 out of every 27 homes. And Stockton, Calif., slipped to No. 4 from No. 2 last quarter. The city, which is 80 miles east of San Francisco, had ranked highest for all of 2008.

"We’re not sure if that will be a one-time thing or a true continued trend, but it’s one of the first positive signs we’ve seen," said Rick Sharga, a senior vice president at RealtyTrac.

New hotspots. But if Las Vegas was the big loser, its neighbor, Reno, Nev., was hot on its heels. The No. 9 city posted an 80% gain in foreclosures — 1 in 37 homes — compared to the third quarter of last year. And it’s just one of several smaller metro areas that are creeping their way up RealtyTrac’s foreclosure list payday advance loan.

"Foreclosure activity is spreading from primary cities into secondary areas," said Sharga. "These aren’t your LAs and Phoenixes — it’s moving into outlying regions."

Boise, Idaho, cracked the top 20 for the first time as foreclosures jumped 141% — the largest increase from 2008. Similarly, Provo, Utah, rose 120%.

The pair of cities "are the first two cases where areas with very high unemployment are breaking into the top spots," Sharga said. "That will continue over the next few months."

Outlook. "The fact is, we’re still seeing record levels of foreclosure activity," said Sharga, who doesn’t expect rates will peak until 2010 because many option-ARMs will reset over the next several months.

Still, the housing market seems to be adjusting, because home prices are stabilizing — albeit at a lower level, Sharga said.

A record number of properties "are coming down the foreclosure pipeline" as well, Sharga said, and they will be trickling into the housing market over the next four years.

"We expect a longer, less robust recovery for the housing market," Sharga said. "We won’t know what’s what until everything gets worked out of the system." 

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