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| Great White North |
| Canada to Boost Daily Oil Output 38% by 2015, Producers Say |
| 2004-07-16 |
| Canada will boost oil production 38 percent to 3.6 million barrels a day by 2015 amid higher oil- sands output, according to the nation's oil producers. Production of oil trapped in sand in Northeastern Alberta will climb to 2.6 million barrels a day, compared with about 1 million last year, the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers said in its annual supply forecast. Output from conventional oil wells will decline to about 25 percent of the country's production from more than 50 percent. Companies will spend about C$30 billion ($23 billion) in the next decade on oil-sands projects, the producers said. Exxon Mobil Corp., Royal Dutch/Shell Group, Suncor Energy Inc. and Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. are planning expansions or new oil-sands projects in the region. Oil output from western Canada will outstrip pipeline capacity within a few years, the survey said. New conduits to the U.S. and ship terminals will need to be built to keep up with demand. The Calgary-based association represents companies that produce more than 98 percent of the nation's oil and natural-gas output. |
| Posted by:Mark Espinola |
| #4 Canada's big shale oil fields are cheaper to produce off of. That's why they're doing it and we're not. Btw, when people talk about "running out of oil" what they mean (whether they know it or not) is that we're running out of oil at the current prices. There is plenty of oil in the world (1000's of years worth) but it's more expensive to get at than the 5-10 bucks a barrell it takes to pump it out of the ground. |
| Posted by: Damn_Proud_American 2004-07-16 4:55:25 PM |
| #3 Here is something Canada does better than we do. They are getting 1M bbl/day out of the tar sands. US production from oil shale is almost zero. Drilling firms in Oklahoma are involved with a slooow but profitable process of clearing out oilfields by choking off one end and pumping water at the other end to clear out residual oil. It is apparently more profitable to do this than to do the oil shale, so far. I imagine they will eventualy get to that, but right now flushing fields is the big paradigm here. |
| Posted by: badanov 2004-07-16 12:23:01 PM |
| #2 Oil news only makes sense in perspective. The much touted by the left "peak oil" problem, for example. Peak oil occurs when the world's producers cannot possibly increase supply to meet demand. The incorrect assumptions are that this will somehow cause a crash in the oil markets or result in sky-high oil prices, and a collapse in oil-driven economies. These assumptions are false. The reason being that "over 100%" oil is economically "marginal." That means that oil produced *below* 100% production is still reasonably priced, and only *new demand* becomes very expensive. So the other half of the marginal equation becomes obvious--money. The greatest new demand will be in nations *least* able to pay the higher prices. In other words, no matter how much they want the plus oil, they can't afford it. The competition for oil between the developed and underdeveloped nations will then become a situation where the developed world doesn't try to compete for new oil--it develops alternatives, such as fuel cells, conservation and alternative energy. Thus, both worlds pay ordinary market prices for below 100% oil and when there is a major tech breakthrough in say, fuel cells (which is expected), there will suddenly be a glut on the oil market and prices will drop. Maybe dramatically. This instability, even a collapse in world oil prices, has convinced most of the middle east oil exporting nations to suddenly and radically develop their economies *away* from oil. Most of their efforts so far have been to spend billions to become regional air travel hubs and tourism destinations. The collapse in the oil markets has been predicted now for over a decade, and by such experts as an ex-Saudi oil minister, regarded as one of the worlds top experts in energy markets. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2004-07-16 11:30:51 AM |
| #1 Here is something Canada does better than we do. They are getting 1M bbl/day out of the tar sands. US production from oil shale is almost zero. |
| Posted by: mhw 2004-07-16 9:57:38 AM |