09-06-2005, 06:13 PM
If oil is over 25$/barrel then there is enough profit to take oil out of the oil sands in nothern Alberta. It's been this way for a while now, so production has been at a steady increase for several years.
Since Canada has 15% of the world's oil reserves (second only to Saudi Arabia), and most of this oil is in northern Alberta - covering an area bigger than Florida - production is only going to increase in this area. Right now it accounts for about 35% of the oil produced in Canada, this number is sure to increase dramatically over the next few years based on the current trend in oil prices.
Right now they can only get 1.4 or 1.5 million barrels of oil out of the sands each day, but they hope to increase that to over 2 million/day.
So I would say that processing the oil in your shale could happen soon, if it can be done with a process similar to that used in the tar sands.
Since Canada has 15% of the world's oil reserves (second only to Saudi Arabia), and most of this oil is in northern Alberta - covering an area bigger than Florida - production is only going to increase in this area. Right now it accounts for about 35% of the oil produced in Canada, this number is sure to increase dramatically over the next few years based on the current trend in oil prices.
Right now they can only get 1.4 or 1.5 million barrels of oil out of the sands each day, but they hope to increase that to over 2 million/day.
So I would say that processing the oil in your shale could happen soon, if it can be done with a process similar to that used in the tar sands.