End of problem.
That was easy....what's next?
Just a few bugs to work out...
Oh, Canada! — Natural Gas and the Future of Tar Sands Production
Dave, The Oil Drum
[The main questions] are
* What is the state of Canada's natural gas production?
* Do future projections support such a large increase in natural gas usage to support tar sands production?
* Are there are alternatives to using natural gas?
But first, we must discuss how and why natural gas is necessary for producing the tar sands.
...In conclusion, I do not see where the extra natural gas is going to come from to scale up tar sands production to levels forseen by agencies like CAPP. From the supply side, the logistics (pipelines) and the political side, there are major obstacles at every turn. This will be especially true as more natural gas is required to produce a barrel of oil using the in situ SAGD method. I recommend great skepticism toward claims that this miracle resource will replace a large part declining conventional oil from existing fields. And I haven't even mentioned the water problems.
(20 June 2006)
theoildrum.com
Canada wrests oil from sands, but at what cost?
Wojtek Dabrowski, Washington Post
Canada's vast oil sands, the biggest source of oil outside Saudi Arabia, don't give up their riches easily.
Mining the earth for molasses-like bitumen that can be turned to oil involves clearing vast swaths of land, stripping off layers of soil and digging out lake-sized holes with giant shovels that scoop up to 56 cubic yards (meters) of material a swing.
The world's largest haul trucks -- house-sized monsters with wheels the size of pick-up trucks -- ship the muck away for crushing and mixing with hot water before further extraction and upgrading. The start-up costs are huge, but with oil around $70 a barrel, the rewards are large as well.
But while the black gold brings billions of dollars to the oil firms and the province of Alberta, critics say the operations are taking too big a toll on the environment.
(8 June 2006)
energybulletin.net
...If this seems to good to be true, as you prepare to pay $3 per gallon to drive your car this summer, as could well happen if current price trends remain intact, there is an even darker side to the use of low grade oil.
According to the Journal: "heavy oil has big economic and environmental drawbacks. It costs more to produce and takes more energy to turn into gasoline than traditional light oil. Recovering and processing Fort McMurray's heavy crude releases up to three times as much greenhouse gas as producing conventional crude. And upgrading it into refined products, such as gasoline or diesel, will require a gigantic investment to retool global refineries."
The extraction process is so labor intensive and requires so much heat, in order to extract the oil from the tar sand that "Total briefly floated the idea of building a nuclear-power plant" in Fort Mc Murray.
energybulletin.net |
