Link doesn't work for me, Novo. But I agree, the final product of the oil sands is synthetic crude, which takes about half a barrel of oil equivalent and two barrels of water to produce one barrel of synthetic crude. Ridiculously inefficient, but if there's a market for it willing to pay, then it will be produced.

That's why there is talk of building a nuclear power plant up there to produce the steam that's needed. But even if that happens, it's going to be 10 years away.

By today's standards we already live in a relatively small home so a move wouldn't gain us much. We have replaced all of our windows for more up to date ones, replaced the furnace last year with a 94% efficient one. About the only thing left we could do is have the siding taken off the house, have foam board insulation applied and the siding replaced.

We could get rid of one vehicle but it's not driven much anyway so minor gain there. Bought a hybrid in 2006.

We normally don't take big holidays the recent Hawaii trip was our first trip of any significance since 1999.

Surely not!!!!!!!

The Alberta converters generate a large and growing amount of petroleum coke. Some is used as a fuel source but most is "stockpiled for future use".

Digging a sodding great hole in the ground, filling it with waste and then covering it over is, to my mind, a fairly loose interpretation of the word "stockpiling".

My bad. http://www.eroei.com/

Let me throw a bit more fuel on the fire (sorry).

Short term: The fact that the price of crude is denominated in US $ and that said $ is down the tubes against a basket of other currencies is more or less being ignored in the discussion of current oil prices.
A favourite conspiracy theory around a couple of years ago was that it was Iraq's "threat" to price its crude exports in euro which prompted Cheney et al. to invade and overthrow SH.

Longer term: I know the convoluted history of all this (NEP and all), but why, oh why can a provincial government make decisions like the irresponsible exploitation of the oil sands without input from the ROC?

I feeling particularly dumb this a.m.

What is ROC?

Oh, sorry. Rest of Canada. I've probably misused it, its normal meaning is Canada minus Quebec.

Rest of the country? Guessing here.

I suspect there is a lot of truth in this. I don't think it is a coincidence that the recent spike in oil prices has happened at the same time as the sub-prime mortgage crisis. Investment funds taken out of the mortgage market have to go somewhere and a lot has ended up in commodities. It is basic economics that the price of a good will rise until it uses up all the money that is available to spend on it.

We are told that the liquidity crunch will take 2-3 years to work its way through the world's financial markets so I can see oil prices remaining artificially high for some time to come, but they will eventually return to a price that keeps demand and supply in balance. I wish I knew what price that will be.

Seven or eight years ago I remember someone saying that the oil sands oil cost $40 a barrel to extract, but I can't remember who or have a source. If they were right then $70 may include remediation.

There was a report on this on the radio last night. Exxon were originally ordered to pay $5 billion in compensation. 16 years later, by appealing every court decision against them they have managed to whittle this down to $500 million (not yet paid). Last year they made $41 billion profit.

This is so true as well. There is more than enough oil in the world. Much more important is a) how much are we prepared to pay for it and b) how are we going to live with the consequences of using it.

<whispers> Russian Orthodox Church.



or maybe Rest of Canada.

Because they pay for the rest of Canada?

Thank you both.

The answer lies in the fact that it is in the constitution (I believe) that the provinces not the federal government are responsible for their resources.

Unfortunately this says more about the idiocy and impotence of the US legal system than it does about oil companies.

Good point...

One might say that the oil companies have us over a barrel........