Oil Spill Adds New Spin on Debate Over Canadian Oil Sands
Though they may be a favorable alternative to a massive oil spill devastating the Gulf Coast, the effects of oil sands processing can’t quite be called clean or safe. (image: Edward Burtynsky for the Globe and Mail via treehugger.com)
The environmental and economic disaster in the Gulf of Mexico oil spill has made clear the risks of deepwater drilling in search of crude oil. Images of oil-covered seabirds and contaminated beaches on computer monitors and television screens across the country will no doubt bring increased wariness and stricter regulation of deepwater drilling and offshore drilling in general.
Proponents of Canada’s oil sands are taking advantage of this unprecedented situation by singing its praises in contrast to the terrible cost of deepwater drilling gone wrong. But while their praises may seem legitimate in the shadow of the largest oil spill in US history, the environmental devastation and high cost of extracting and processing oil sands have not changed.
Reporting on a speech he made to a business group, the Calgary Herald summed up the message from CEO Bruce March of oil sands developer Imperial Oil: “Canada’s oil reserves offer the only safe and most environmentally friendly source of energy to meet world demands over the next three decades.” Whether those exact words were spoken by March himself is not clear, but the statement is at best open to debate and at worst deeply misleading. Squeezing synthetic crude oil from oil sands in Alberta requires the excavation of millions of tons of earth in a forested wilderness, contamination of millions of gallons of fresh water that form toxic ponds, and emits millions of pounds of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.
Responding to a US trip by Alberta Premier Ed Stelmach that included promoting oil sands to US lawmakers, economist Jeffrey Rubin summed up his criticism:
The tar sands aren’t a greener alternative to deep-water oil. They’re just a more expensive alternative. And the more that synthetic oil from tar sands replaces deep-water production, the more you’ll pay to burn it.
Calling oil sands excavation and processing “effectively a massive strip-mining project with a huge carbon emissions trail,” Rubin expressed disappointment that the tragedy in the Gulf had led some to see the process in more environmentally favorable light. Taking a page from his book that paints a gloomy picture of our petroleum-based global society, Why Your World is About to Get a Whole Lot Smaller, Rubin also noted the great economic expense of making useful crude oil out of oil sands and predicted that it would help drive gasoline, heating oil, and other petroleum product prices to staggering highs in the next decade. Those spiking prices, he posits, will bring about profound societal changes; “The very oil prices that are needed in order for tar sands to replace deep-water production are the same ones that will take millions of North American drivers right off the road,” he wrote.
The environmental effects and high cost are not lost on oil sands-men like March, who said his company and others are working to bring down costs and mitigate negative environmental effects:
“Our goal on land use is simple,” he said. “After development is completed, we want no evidence that we were ever there.”
Until that goal is achieved, however, oil sands will continue to be a costly and environmentally taxing source of crude oil, regardless of disasters that result from other methods of oil extraction. True, oil sands operations will never spout millions of gallons of crude into the ocean, but unchecked water pollution, excavation of forests, and greenhouse gas emissions associated with oil sands processing hardly make it a “clean” alternative.
Oil Spill Turns Spotlight on Great Potential and Great Costs of Canadian Oil Sands
Oil sands, shown here as a slurry in the early stage of the process that produces synthetic crude oil, are an increasingly large source of America’s oil. (image: nytimes.com)
As spilled oil spreads throughout the Gulf of Mexico and threatens a widening swath of US coastline, public attention has turned to other methods of producing crude oil that involve fewer risks of environmental and economic disaster. Once such method is the synthesizing of crude oil from oil sands (a.k.a. tar sands) in Alberta, Canada. Although the extraction and processing of oil sands carries heavy environmental costs, the risk of a catastrophic explosion or spill are much lower than on offshore drilling rigs.
An in-depth article in Wednesday’s New York Times lays out the benefits and costs of crude oil from the oil sands of Alberta, sure to become a more attractive but also more scrutinized source of oil for the US in the coming months and years. The benefits: huge supplies (second only to those of Saudi Arabia), a lower risk of spill and explosion, geographical proximity, and the friendliness and stability of the Canadian government. The costs: environmental devastation caused by the extraction process (excavation of millions of tons of sand and toxic wastewater ponds), energy- and water-intensive processing of sand to produce synthetic crude, and high carbon emissions produced by processing.
“Canadian oil sands are expected to become America’s top source of imported oil this year, surpassing conventional Canadian oil imports.” Source: IHS Cambridge Energy Research Associates (image: nytimes.com)
For their part, oil companies (Shell is the largest oil sands producer in Alberta) are developing new technology to help bring down the emissions of oil sands processing, according to a separate New York Times report published on its Green blog on Tuesday. The blog reported on one oil company’s ambitious goal of reducing emissions from oil sands production by 40 percent over the next 15 years. Oil companies involved in oil sands production are aware of the environmentally damaging effects of their activities and are working to fix them.
Even when the environmental costs of oil sands production are taken into the consideration, the economic payoff of synthetic crude from oil sands is keeping projects humming. Despite the high costs of oil sands production, the price of crude has remained high enough for most of the past few years to make the undertaking worthwhile. But a recent report publicized by a third New York Times piece, published on the Green blog on Wednesday, questions the long-term economic benefits of oil sands. The report, produced by RiskMetrics and investment adviser Ceres, calculates the monetary cost of environmental cleanup from oil sands operations as well as pending legislation that could make oil from tar sands even more expensive or ban it outright. The report’s final recommendation is one of caution:
We conclude that oil sands producers banking on rapid growth are taking a big gamble. Over the long-time horizon of these capital-intensive investments, market and energy policies could turn against their projects for reasons largely beyond their control.
There is no question that demand for oil in the US and around the world will remain strong for decades to come. As long as that demand is there, oil sands will be a viable source of oil and source of revenue for companies that process them. And as conventional oil (crude oil acquired through onshore or offshore drilling) becomes more expensive and hazardous to reach, the appeal of synthetic crude from oil sands will only grow. The question raised by the Ceres report is this: can oil sands producers clean up their act faster than state governments and Washington can enact laws that render the product of oil sands unprofitable? It could go either way, but there is a very real danger that the oil companies will lose the race.
Therein lies the dual identity of Canadian oil sands: a plentiful and promising energy source that may or may not be worth steep environmental and economic costs.
Canada’s Oil Sands Success Spawns Imitators Across the Globe
Despite environmental objections, Canada’s oil sands production has inspired similar projects in South America, Russia, and Africa. (image: theglobeandmail.com)
Oil sands production, the expensive and energy-intensive process of extracting bitumen from a mixture of sand and converting it into crude oil, is currently centered in Canada but new investment and new projects are springing up around the globe. Unconventional sources of oil, like the oil sands, are producing a growing share of the world’s total oil supply, the UK Guardian reported on Monday.
This is the conclusion of the environmentalist group Friends of the Earth (FOE), which released a report documenting the expansion of European oil companies into oil sands projects and calling on the EU to discourage the use of oil from oil sands and other unconventional sources. FOE says that unconventional oil will account for 11 percent of world oil production in 2030 if current policy and consumption patterns hold. Like other environmental groups, FOE hopes to prevent oil sands production from growing because it creates more carbon emissions than conventional oil production—three to five times more, by its calculations. Shell, one of the pioneers of oil sands production in Canada, disputes that figure and points to carbon capture and storage as a means to lower carbon emissions.
While environmentalist critics abhor the added carbon emissions caused by oil sands mining, proponents emphasize the vast potential resources held by oil sands, and oil companies have been persuaded. As production from existing fields declines, the oil sands in places like Canada and Venezuela—whose deposits are each estimated at more than a trillion barrels, the equivalent of more than four Saudi Arabias—become more attractive, despite the added costs associated with processing oil sands into crude oil.
Shell and BP, each active in the oil sands of Alberta, Canada, are leading the effort to develop oil sands elsewhere. BP is working in Venezuela, which is second only to Canada in oil sands reserves. Shell has partnered with Tatneft to develop oil sands in Russia. Other major European oil companies, France’s Total and Italy’s ENI, are also working on oil sands projects in Venezuela and are making investments in Africa as well.
Oil sands have long been a target of environmentalists, but some believe the ongoing oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico should cast the oil sands in a new, and friendlier, light. The Calgary Herald, after saying it would be “insensitive” to try to take advantage of the catastrophe in the Gulf, summed up the position:
There is, however, an opportunity here for Alberta to reinforce the obvious without actually stating it: environmental damage from land-based oil operations remain localized and are more manageable. Compared to the Gulf spill, which could hitch a ride on the Gulf Stream and threaten coastlines from Louisiana to the Florida Keys and even continue up the Atlantic coast of the U.S., the 170 billion barrels of oil locked in Alberta’s oilsands are looking far less risky.
Big Oil and FOE have starkly opposing agendas, but they agree on one thing: if people continue to use oil, the oil sands will be developed; it’s simply where the oil is. If the BP/Deepwater Horizon oil spill leads to curtailed offshore oil drilling, the appeal of the oil sands will only grow.
Tar Sand Supporters Get Pwned*: New Canadian Video Game Is Activism Tool
Canadian PM Stephen Harper gets splattered. "Tar Nation" is a 1790s-era euphemism for damnation, and a 21st century-style tool for spreading political opposition to tar sands mining. (image: tarsandswatch.org)
An online Canadian video game released Sunday allows users to shoot oil at politicians who support Alberta tar sands mining. Called “Tar Nation,” the game was designed by the Polaris Institute, a Canadian think tank that conducts public outreach campaigns on issues disproportionally represented by corporate-driven dialogue and information. Otherwise known as oilsands, tar sands are a controversial source of crude oil because of their development’s heavy toll on the environment, both immediate and long-term.
Set in the backyard of a foreboding oil refinery, the game features Prime Minister Stephen TARper and Opposition Leader Michael OIL RIGnatieff (that’s Harper and Ignatieff in more relaxed settings) as Jack-in-the-box targets popping up and down behind a tree stump, brown weed, and rock ostensibly subjected to thermal cracking.
Insidious Design Net designed the Flash-animated game as an activism tool. Even if you were just interested in spraying goop, it’s hard not to absorb the underlying message. One’s eyes drift over headlines and phrases such as “most destructive project on earth; “How Canada subsidizes fossil fuels at the expense of green alternatives”; and “about to become Canada’s no.1 emitter of greenhouse gases.” As previously reported, Canada’s tar sands have come under fire especially since it was discovered that nine projects are already failing to meet clean-up rules, leaving vast quantities of toxic waste on the ground. When enough damage has been done, the game presents the player with a letter to the real-life politicians. Compared to the oil shoot-out, that timeless tool of political advocacy gently makes its point.
Dear Stephen Harper and Michael Ignatieff,
I am deeply concerned that you are both stuck in the Alberta tar sands.
The tar sands represent the wrong direction for Canada. With three to five times the greenhouse gas emissions as conventional oil, severely damaging environmental and social impacts, and negative economic consequences for other provinces, the tar sands are taking Canada in the wrong direction.
It is not too late to invest in the new energy economy of the future and turn your back on the tar sands.
Sincerely, . . .
This is not the first time someone has used entertainment vehicles as a way to protest tar sands. In March, a coalition of environmental groups published an ad titled “Canada’s Avatar Sands,” that cast tar sands as the mineral “unobtainium” from the movie Avatar. Parallels between the fictional resource’s role in the film and the issues surrounding oil sands in real life are hard to ignore. Whether Avatar’s makers also intended this connection is open to interpretation.
As owner of the world’s second largest oil reservoir, and as the primary oil exporter to the US, Canada stands at a significant crossway. Developing its oil sands would be very economically profitable in the long run, and give the country new leverage against the US. However, the process of removing bitumen from the Alberta tar sands contaminates millions of gallons of fresh water could decimate an area of land the size of Florida, 14,000 km of which is intact forest—itself a rare thing in the world. These destructive side effects come with no easy solution.
A colorful and engaging way to win people’s minds, “Tar Nation” is an effective way to publicize an issue that deserves wider scrutiny. Also, if you watch the game long enough, you can see Stephen Harper briefly clutching a stuffed animal for no reason.
*Pwned is a 2000s-era version of the word “owned,” itself a euphemism for “taken down,” or “obliterated,” and originating from internet video game culture, where players would mistakenly type “P” instead of “O” when communicating with a defeated player. Its usage is mostly limited to the internet.
Conoco, Total Expand Oil Sands Production
Conoco’s facilities at the Christina Lake project in the oil sands of Alberta, Canada. (image: conocophillips.com)
Reuters reported that Texas-based ConocoPhillips and French oil major Total began an expansion of their Canadian oil sands joint venture on Tuesday. The companies plan to increase production from the Surmont project to four times the current rate, from 27,000 barrels per day to 110,000 barrels per day.
Construction will begin this year and is scheduled to be completed in 2015. The cost of the project was not disclosed.
HeatingOil.com Weather Report: January 7, 2010
(image: weather.com)
Today’s Northeast Weather: After snow showers hit the region yesterday, it’s more of the same today—bitter cold, with highs expected in the 20s and 30s, and more white stuff. Coming from a low pressure system sweeping in from Canada, snow is headed for northern New England and western New York. And, blowing in from a Midwest weather system, snow will also hit parts of western Pennsylvania and West Virginia; no more than one to three inches expected anywhere in the region.
Tomorrow’s Forecast: The mercury is expected to drop even lower on Friday with highs in New York City potentially topping off in the 30s. The continuing cold front will force 10- and 20-degree temperatures throughout the region so bundle up…or stay inside.
Local Temperatures and Heating Degree Days (January 6)
Seattle: Low 42ºF, High 50ºF; HDD: 19, -6 from average
Boston: Low 24ºF, High 34ºF; HDD: 36, +1 from average
Portland, Maine: Low 21ºF; High 34ºF; HDD: 37, -6 from average
Burlington, Vermont: Low 21ºF, High 25ºF; HDD: 42, -4 from average
Washington D.C./Baltimore: Low 28ºF; High 37ºF; HDD: 32, 0 from average
Long Island: Low 25ºF; High 33ºF; HDD: 36, +2 from average
New York City: Low 26ºF; High 34ºF; HDD: 35, +3 from average
Sources: weather.com, weather.gov/climate
US Moves Ahead of Canada in Clean Energy
Canada’s wind energy industry is worried that it’s falling behind its US counterpart. (image: lilith-ezine.com)
Canada is now lagging behind the US in efforts to develop clean energy, reports the Vancouver Sun. Experts involved in Canada’s wind energy industry, one of the country’s fastest growing renewable energy industries, say that Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s government is moving away from President Barack Obama’s clean-energy initiatives. And they want the Harper government to do more to support sustainable technologies.
Two national programs that do support these technologies are running out of money, and no one knows if the government is planning on renewing the funding.
Does The Simpsons Shape Public Opinion on Nuclear Power?
(image: blogs.citypages.com)
Dr. Bill Irwin, a philosophy professor at King’s College in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., and editor of The Simpsons and Philosophy thinks so. The Canadian Press reported on Monday that Irwin suggests the show may have had strong influence on social perception of the nuclear industry. Perhaps trying to drum up some controversy and boost book sales (or earn himself a cut of some lobbying funds?) Irwin says that the show’s trifecta of characters – careless plant employee Homer, miserly Mr. Burns, and environmentalist Lisa – has made powerful and repeated arguments against the safety of nuclear power.
It’s true there hasn’t been a new power plant built in the US or Canada in over 30 years, and for 20 of those The Simpsons has been on the air, creating indelible images of nuclear havoc–Homer dropping a fuel rod in the title sequence, falling asleep at the control panel and then pushing random buttons in a panic, and of course of Blinky the three-eyed fish—a mutant product of the power plant’s unchecked radiation.
Blinky the fish. (image: blogs.sfweekly.com)
Irwin undoes his own argument, though, by raising the specters of some other things that have happened in the past 30 years that also may not have been great for nuclear reactor sales: the meltdowns at Three-Mile Island and Chernobyl.
The report coincides with the rejection of a proposal for a new Saskatchewan plant by Ontario-based Bruce Power; the plan was scrapped after public polling determined that area residents were opposed to it. The Wall Street Journal weighs in, saying that economics are a far larger argument against building any new plants, given the investment required to build and maintain them, and the years of labor necessary before they can start supplying power.
Laying the blame for the shortcomings of nuclear power at the feet of a bumbling cartoon family. Sounds like a plot worthy of a certain American TV show…
Fire Cuts Suncor’s Output, Won’t Affect Prices
The Suncor oil sands facility in Alberta. (image: nationalpost.com)
A fire at its Fort McMurray, Alberta oil sands facility will force Suncor, Canada’s largest oil producer, to cut production for the next few weeks, according to an article published by Reuters on Thursday. Output will fall from between 120,000 to 150,000 per day until repairs can be made. While Suncor’s stock price dropped by 3.6% due to the incident, oil traders do not expect futures contracts to be affected. Crude oil inventories are still at historical highs, making this single incident somewhat irrelevant to current and future crude prices.
Oil Sands Licenses Yield High Sales in Alberta’s Auction
Oil sands are in high demand, as shown by the high prices fetched by drilling leases. (image: nationalpost.com)
In a recent auction, the Canadian province of Alberta sold oil leases for a total of $383.9 million, making it the highest sale of onshore leases since December 2006 and the third highest in history. The most expensive lease sold for a total of $46.8 million, or about $5,700 per hectare, indicating that the bidders (big oil companies) are unafraid of the challenges associated with drilling in oil sands and are willing to spend the time and money necessary to see results.
Perhaps when you think of Alberta, you don’t imagine tremendous underground fields of oil. But according to the Oil Sands Discovery Center, the province’s oil sands are the largest known reserve of oil on earth, between 1.7 and 2.5 trillion barrels of crude, and represent about 44 percent of the country’s oil production. To gain some idea of the immensity of these reserves, consider that Saudi Arabia has only 261.9 billion barrels of proven reserves, and that the combined reserves of OPEC come to only 885 billion barrels.
Spending on Oil and Gas Exploration and Production to Rise in 2010
Oil companies will be spending more money on exploration in 2010. (image: yorku.ca)
A survey of 387 oil and gas producers found that global spending on oil and gas exploration will rise 11 percent to $439 billion in 2010 as energy prices increase, Reuters reported on Thursday. The increase in spending on exploration reverses the 15 percent decrease seen in 2009, when oil prices dropped after 2008’s record highs.
Exploration and development spending is strongly linked to oil and gas prices. If prices are too low, oil companies have no incentive to initiate exploration and drilling projects. Without the development and production of new fields, however, supplies will decrease; that could in turn raise prices, unless demand falls by an equal amount.
The survey projected spending on exploration and development in the US to rise by 12 percent to $79 billion, with drilling for shale gas responsible for much of the increase. Spending in Canada is expected to increase by 23 percent to $23 billion, buoyed in part by the strengthening of the Canadian dollar. Globally, national oil companies in Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and Russia are expected to increase their budgets and raise exploration and development spending outside of North America by 10 percent to reach $337 billion.
The findings of the survey, conducted by Barclay’s Capital, fit with Chevron’s recent decision to focus on exploration and development in favor of refining. The majority of Chevron’s $22 billion in planned spending for 2010—$17.6 billion—will be spent on upstream natural gas and crude oil exploration and production projects.
Shell to Slash US Workforce, Mostly in Houston
Shell, faced with falling profits, plans to cut 5,000 jobs. (image: memrieconomicblog.org)
According to an article published on Tuesday in the Houston Chronicle, Royal Dutch Shell has announced it will slash hundreds of jobs located in Houston and the surrounding region.
The primary departments affected by this decision are financial and other support divisions, with many of these jobs being shipped to India and the Philippines to cut costs. As we reported earlier, Royal Dutch Shell’s earnings dropped by 62 percent in the third quarter, a trend followed by other oil majors. The shrinking profits have been caused by the downturn in the worldwide economy, which has caused a drastic decline in oil demand.
Canada’s GV Energy to Produce Little-Known Biodiesel
The molecular makeup of dimethyl ether includes one oxygen atom connecting hydrogen and carbon atoms. Its molecular formula is C2H6O CH3OCH3. (image: wikipedia.org)
A Canadian energy company has proposed building a biorefinery to produce dimethyl ether, or DME, the CBC reported Wednesday. In November, Calgary-based GV Energy signed a memorandum of understanding with the city of Terrance, British Columbia, under which the city would set aside a 100-hectare site for the refinery in the Skeena Industrial Development Park.
Although DME is not widely known in North America, stricter U.S. greenhouse gas emissions standards may boost its popularity. GV Energy CEO Eric Switzer told the CBC that even though DME might never completely replace fossil fuels, if the world has reached peak oil production as many believe, it could comprise a viable solution.
DME is a mixture of hydrogen and carbon monoxide that can be produced from biomass, natural gas, or coal. GV has been producing DME from black liquor, a wood-based biomass byproduct of paper manufacturing. As one might expect, DME has its pros and cons.
Superior Plus Corp. Makes a Splash in the US Heating Oil Market–Who Are They?
With two major acquisitions of American heating oil companies this year (Sunoco in September and Griffith Energy Services in November), Canada’s Superior Plus Corporation has very quickly become a major force in the US heating oil industry. Here at HeatingOil.com we wanted to see what was behind Superior’s big moves and look into what they could mean for the future of the US heating oil industry, so we put our contributor Nick Malinowski on the case. The result is an interesting and informative piece on the corporate juggernaut from Up North with a rich history and operations in a variety of industries. Take a look at the article in the Education section and school yourself on Superior Plus’s place in the past and future of the heating oil industry.
Heating Oil Weekly Roundup: Fighting Pirates, the Future of Nuclear and Coal, and Canada’s Embattled Reputation
Click here to view a larger image. (image: ngoilgas.com)
Somali pirates seized a 300,000-ton oil tanker on Monday, taking advantage of the fact that oil tankers don’t keep guns on board to defend themselves—guns and ships full of flammable liquid don’t mix. But tanker crews have a number of innovative ways to defend themselves, reports Dan Jones at Next Generation Oil & Gas. Highlights from the image above include the “superfly” and the “dazzle gun.” It almost sounds fun, except for the part about pirates with rocket-propelled grenades.
Between the worrying prospect of peak oil and climate change, nuclear power has newfound support as an energy source that could replace a significant portion of fossil fuel energy and cut carbon emissions. Problem solved! Not so fast, says the Economist. Like oil and coal, uranium—the fuel of nuclear plants—is a finite resource, and there may not be enough of it to solve our energy needs.
Maybe that’s why energy analyst Gregor Macdonald thinks the future of energy is coal. At his blog, Gregor.us, Macdonald explains his view that oil use will decline in the coming decades, but the developing world will not, he says, embrace a basket of renewable energies. Instead, developing nations will burn coal—it tends to be cheap.
In the Guardian, George Monbiot lambastes “a corrupt petro-state” that has sacrificed a diverse economy for the benefits “the dirtiest commodity known to man.” What country do you think he’s referring to? You might be surprised, because he’s talking about Canada. The Guardian allowed Canada’s minister of the environment, Jim Prentice, to respond, and he labeled Monbiot’s accusations “scurrilous” and said “Canada remains steadfast in its commitment to fight climate change.” That sounds more like Canada.
Alberta’s Oil Sands Projects Violating Cleanup Rules
Tailing ponds in the oil sands have been lethal to ducks that have landed in them. (image: ghostsintheeyes.typepad.com)
Oh, Canada. It’s time to clean up your act. Not only is our neighbor to the north the target of “mounting international pressure” to beef up its emissions-reduction record before Copenhagen, but it has recently come to light that seven of Alberta’s nine oil sands projects are falling short of their new cleanup rules. According to a New York Times Green Inc. blog post Thursday, vast amounts of tailing ponds near bitumen refineries are housing some seriously toxic chemicals.
The numbers are grim. If Canada continues its noncompliance, the Pembina Institute and Water Matters Society of Alberta estimate that the tailing ponds could contain 300 million gallons of toxic liquid by 2020. A 30 percent increase over current volumes, that prediction amounts to toxic sludge covering 100 square miles, roughly the size of Brooklyn!
Advanced Clean Technologies Announces Cleaner, More Efficient Method to Process Oil Sands
ACT may have a new technology to extract more oil from Alberta’s challenging oil sands. (image: decideforyourself.wordpress.com)
On Nov. 12 American Clean Technologies (ACT) reported additional information about the pilot tests conducted by its American Petroleum Solutions (APS) subsidiary, including the fact that the oil extraction rate was more than 99 percent in tests conducted on oil sand samples from Utah and Alberta, Canada.
APS, which ACT acquired on Oct. 5, uses its patented fluidizer—which the company refers to as “a water-based technology”—to separate oil from any solid surface, including soil and sand. This fluidizer allows oil to be rejected by a solid surface, resulting in recoverable oil. While APS has used this technology for environmental remediation projects after oil spills, removing oil from contaminated soil or sand, the recent tests have shown its promise in extracting oil from the difficult-to-mine oil sands of Alberta.
Opinion: Energy Consultants Predict Zero-Carbon Economy by 2050
(image: Caveman 92223 via flickr.com)
In a Guardian opinion piece published on Wednesday, John Elkington and Gary Kendall make the case for a massive transformation of our hydrocarbon-based economy by mid-century, in response to pressures of the geological, geopolitical, and climate change variety. They point to the fact that even Big Oil knows by this point that we are at the beginning of the end, that the Age of Oil is in irreversible decline. And while the “big six” oil companies seem to be doing well on the surface, they are going to have to drastically change their tune to adapt to a shifting market.
Elkington and Kendall focus on the three aforementioned main factors that are pushing the world away from a carbon economy: geology, geopolitics, and climate change. Geopolitically, there are tensions among oil-producing and oil-consuming nations cropping up in the fight for what’s left of the world’s oil. The pair cites Nigeria and China specially, who are at odds over China’s attempts to lock up oil supplies in African countries.
Canada’s Oil Sands Production Could Double in Ten Years
Alberta, Canada’s oil sands offer a vast supply of oil. (image: AP via guardian.co.uk)
Canada has an estimated 28 billion barrels of oil stored within its borders. However, much of it is hard to extract because those reserves are located in the oil sands of Alberta, which are harder and more expensive to mine. But production from these oil sands may double by 2020, according to an article published Tuesday on Bloomberg’s website.
If this proves true, it will add to the world’s supply of oil which should lead to lower prices for finished products like heating oil and gasoline.
But there could be some stumbling blocks. A major pipeline which would link Canada’s oil reserves to American refineries has been met with protests by environmentalists and others fearful of the damage that could be caused if this project is ever completed.
