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> The funny thing is I moved to Calgary in the early 2000's when oil was well under $50/bbl and the environment was one of unbounded optimism and potential. Wh

> The funny thing is I moved to Calgary in the early 2000's when oil was well under $50/bbl and the environment was one of unbounded optimism and potential. When oil hit the same price a few years ago on the way down the would have thought the world ended. Because the province ran out of the easy to extract oil and had to move to bitumen extraction which requires a much higher price of oil to be profitable. Oil sands need the price of oil to be in the area of $100+ a barrel to be profitable.

refurb 5y ago
You have a source on that $100/barrel? Last figures I saw were $30/barrel was breakeven.
- rubiquity 5y ago
  $70/barrel was the last number I heard 3-4 years ago. It's likely around $100 now due to higher operational costs. It's really hard to move oil in Canada.
  - pixelgeek 5y ago
    It has more to do, I believe, with the cost of extraction and then processing the bitumen into a form that can be transported. It is quite energy intensive to do
    - Scoundreller 5y ago
      > energy intensive Yes, but this means your variable input costs are proportional to your sales price.
      - pixelgeek 5y ago
        Indeed. Its quite the economic puzzle
- pixelgeek 5y ago
  Those are numbers that I recall being bandied about in the press when the oil sands were being developed. I did a search for some actual numbers and they seem to be all over the place depending on the year, the type of bitumen converters being used, the age of the facility and the actual source. Oil industry numbers were about $20 a barrel less than the numbers I was seeing from investment firms. I suspect that the numbers I was referencing were for new facilities being built back in 2015 or so. There was a lot of talk about new facilities being put into operation but that was when the price of oil was stratospheric. Those numbers would have been higher than older facilities or upgraded facilities.

refurb 5y ago

You have a source on that $100/barrel? Last figures I saw were $30/barrel was breakeven.

rubiquity 5y ago
$70/barrel was the last number I heard 3-4 years ago. It's likely around $100 now due to higher operational costs. It's really hard to move oil in Canada.
- pixelgeek 5y ago
  It has more to do, I believe, with the cost of extraction and then processing the bitumen into a form that can be transported. It is quite energy intensive to do
  - Scoundreller 5y ago
    > energy intensive Yes, but this means your variable input costs are proportional to your sales price.
    - pixelgeek 5y ago
      Indeed. Its quite the economic puzzle
pixelgeek 5y ago
Those are numbers that I recall being bandied about in the press when the oil sands were being developed. I did a search for some actual numbers and they seem to be all over the place depending on the year, the type of bitumen converters being used, the age of the facility and the actual source. Oil industry numbers were about $20 a barrel less than the numbers I was seeing from investment firms. I suspect that the numbers I was referencing were for new facilities being built back in 2015 or so. There was a lot of talk about new facilities being put into operation but that was when the price of oil was stratospheric. Those numbers would have been higher than older facilities or upgraded facilities.