Canada poised to be the U.S. main source of oil?

[hardheadjarhead]

http://www.macleans.ca/topstories/business/article.jsp?content=20050613_107308_107308



What do you think?

Can we extract it fast enough to get out from underneath the Saudis?



Regards,


Steve

 

[Tgace]

http://www.macleans.ca/topstories/business/article.jsp?content=20050613_107308_107308



What do you think?

Can we extract it fast enough to get out from underneath the Saudis?



Regards,


Steve

If theres money to be made and enough money invested to get started anything is possible...

 

[Bob Hubbard]

What? We're invading Canada?

 

[Rich Parsons]

http://www.macleans.ca/topstories/business/article.jsp?content=20050613_107308_107308



What do you think?

Can we extract it fast enough to get out from underneath the Saudis?



Regards,


Steve

What about the Chinese, I heard recently, that a major Chinese institution bought out a large Canadian oil company and their rights.

So, even if it is from Canada, will it be the Chinese who control it?

 

[Bob Hubbard]

Looking at that article, I see it interesting to note that they see oil at $30-40US a barrel. My question is, would we see that savings as thats almost half the current rate ($68 as of now) or would the gas companies continue to pocket their record breaking profits?

 

[Rich Parsons]

Looking at that article, I see it interesting to note that they see oil at $30-40US a barrel. My question is, would we see that savings as thats almost half the current rate ($68 as of now) or would the gas companies continue to pocket their record breaking profits?

Hmmm, what I expect to see, Oil at $40 out of Canada, then we buy from them, at say $55, then OPEC, drops prices to $53, and then Canada to $45, and so it goes until OPEC drops their prices, (* Remember the Saudi's can just step up production and flood the market with real cheap oil *) below the cost of Canada, until they go out of business, and then the prices will go back up.

Just how I see the monopoly will roll out.

 

[Makalakumu]

From the article...

To be sure, many skeptics remain, in part because oil sands present a much greater technological challenge than conventional oil fields. In operations like Suncor's Millennium project, raw oil sand must be dug up using massive power shovels, or liquefied using steam so bitumen can be pumped to the surface. Either way, the process is arduous, expensive and consumes vast amounts of natural gas and water. Moreover, oil sands operations have been plagued with cost overruns and mechanical breakdowns.

The actual cost of increasing production could be much higher then estimated.

In 2003, the U.S. consumed approximately 20 million barrels of petroleum per day, and about 12 million barrels of that was imported. Canada shipped a little over two million barrels a day to its southern neighbour, according to U.S. government estimates, making this country the U.S.'s biggest single energy supplier by far. By 2015, it is projected that Americans will be consuming more than 24 million barrels a day, and if they are going to meet that demand, rising production from the oil sands will be essential.

Production in the oil sands would have to be increased by a factor of 10 in order to supply a third of Americas demand for oil in 2015.

At Suncor, the hulking machines of Canada's oil future continue their methodical task. An electric power shovel with a scoop the size of a two-car garage rips a 100-ton chunk of oil-saturated sand away from a black cliff face. The machine stands three storeys tall, and yet is eerily quiet as it goes about its work, merely humming along as it dumps its cargo into the bed of a Caterpillar 797 -- the world's largest truck, with 12-foot wheels capable of hauling a load of up to 400 tons. The truck rumbles away, loaded down with enough sand to produce about 200 barrels of oil -- about US$10,000 worth at current prices.

The eco-system is utterly destroyed in the process of removing the oil. One would have to decimate huge tracts of land in order to increase production because the amount of oil coming out of the sands is so small.

 

[Makalakumu]

Another article...

http://www.energybulletin.net/7331.html

From the article...

Oil & Gas Journal estimates close to 180 billion barrels, second only to Saudi Arabia's approximately 260 billion, while BP Statistical Review of World Energy puts the figure at about 17 billion barrels, based on oil sands under active development. And the Canadian oil sands don't even turn up on the International Energy Agency's industry lists of the 10 countries with the largest proven oil reserves.

Actual reserves are disputed. Canadian industries, just like other oil producing countries, have been known to inflate estimates in order to stimulate business.

Even the higher industry estimate is only about a six-year world supply, as the planet now consumes close to 30 billion barrels of oil a year.

This figure is using todays statistics. World usage of oil is expected to rise exponentially as more industrial economies come on line.

Because of the energy-intensive production, oil sands are large sources of greenhouse gas emissions, according to Isaacs from the Alberta Energy Research Institute. The need to reduce carbon dioxide emissions makes oil sand investments additionally risky,

This is an issue in Canada because it has signed the international Kyoto accords, pledging to reduce greenhouse gases.

Two points about energy...

1. The Kyoto treaty will make it very difficult for Canada to raise production.
2. The energy used to produce the oil will get more expensive. Natural gas production is peaked in the US and production is falling. How can energy supply keep up with the increased demand caused by increased production of the tar sands?