"Hall, who wasn't involved in Hughes' study, thinks the EROI for oil sands would fall closer to 1:1 if the tar sands' full life cycle—including transportation,

"Hall, who wasn't involved in Hughes' study, thinks the EROI for oil sands would fall closer to 1:1 if the tar sands' full life cycle—including transportation, refinement into higher quality products, end use efficiency and environmental costs—was taken into account." If his statement is true and it costs the same amount of fuel it produces, the overall cost would exceed the revenue on a variable basis and it would not be profitable to mine oil at any price. The exception to this would be if NG is so abundant that we are burning it since it can't be sold (happens in ND), then using it to refine oil makes sense.