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I am no economist, but my understanding is that Alberta's oil sands must be extracted via fracking, which is expensive and only profitable when oil prices are h
by julianlam 5y ago
I am no economist, but my understanding is that Alberta's oil sands must be extracted via fracking, which is expensive and only profitable when oil prices are high. That there is lots of oil available is besides the fact if it is no longer economically feasible to extract it.
This quality of the oil makes Alberta extremely sensitive to pricing shenanigans OPEC plays every once in awhile.
A couple years back when oil prices were artificially low, it was due to OPEC pricing oil well below even their cost, purely to drive other oil producers out of the game.
- mdtancsa 5y agoThe above added costs as well as the challenge of getting it to refineries. Lack of pipeline capacity to the coast (particularly Texas) is a big factor too.
- goodcanadian 5y agoYou are conflating a couple of things. Oil sands extraction is completely different from fracking. But, you did get the basic essence right in that oil sands extraction is quite dirty and expensive. Fracking is actually a reasonably cheap way to extract additional oil from more conventional wells. That happens in Alberta, also.
- julianlam 5y agoThank you for the clarification!
- shagie 5y ago> my understanding is that Alberta's oil sands must be extracted via fracking https://www.oilsandsmagazine.com/technical/mining/surface-mining https://www.oilsandsmagazine.com/technical/mining/surface-mi... and https://www.oilsandsmagazine.com/technical/mining https://www.oilsandsmagazine.com/technical/mining These are large surface mines. The economics of it have to do with the massive amount of earth moved, and the relatively low amount of oil recovered per unit volume... and the work needed to be done to restore the mine afterwards.
- justin66 5y ago> restore the mine afterwards Cue the laugh track.
- SketchySeaBeast 5y agoJust view it from space: https://www.google.ca/maps/@57.0798964,-111.8686816,106744m/data=!3m1!1e3 https://www.google.ca/maps/@57.0798964,-111.8686816,106744m/... It looks a right mess.