Message-ID: <000d01be17df$76caca60$6424fea9@jay98> Date: Tue, 24 Nov 1998 09:19:59 -1000 From: Jay Hanson <mailto:j@QMAIL.COM> Subject: Oil Sands To: mailto:DEVEL-L@AMERICAN.EDU
In the past, many economists have pointed to "oil sands" as a source for liquid fuels once conventional oil "peaks" in a few years. [ e.g., ECONOMIST, 12/20/97 http://www.economist.com/editorial/freeforall/20-12-97/xm0002.html ]But just because reserves of unconventional oil are large, it does NOT mean they will ever be produced in quantities like conventional oil.
OIL SANDS POTENTIAL "Much of the oilsand is too deep to be reached by strip mining. Other methods are being tried to recover this deeper oil, but the economics are marginal. With the strip mining and refining process now in use, it takes the energy equivalent of two barrels of oil to produce one barrel. To expand the strip mining operation to the extent which could, for example, produce the 18 million barrels of oft used each day in the United States would involve the world's biggest mining operation, on a scale which is simply not possible in the foreseeable future, if ever. Canada will probably gradually increase the oil production from these deposits, but until the conventional oil of the world is largely depleted these Canadian deposits are likely to represent only a very small fraction of world production. The production will always be insignificant relative to potential demand. Oilsands are now and will be important to Canada as a long-term source of energy and income. But they will not be a source of oil as are the world's oil wells today." GeoDestinies, by Walter Youngquist; National Book Company, 1997. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0894202995 . See http://dieoff.com/page132.htm ]
OIL SANDS COMPANIES DESTROY ALBERTA FARMING COMMUNITIES Environmental groups and farmers are speaking out against the environmental impacts of major oil and gas extraction projects in northern Alberta.
The Alberta oil sands are thought to contain approximately one third of the world's oil resources; it is estimated that some 300 billion barrels of oil from the sands are ultimately recoverable, equal to or greater than the reserves of Saudi Arabia.
A report by conservation biologist Brian Horejsi of Western Wildlife Environments Consulting shows that over 225,000 wells have been drilled to date and 1.5 million kilometers (938,000 miles) of seismic road access have been cut and an estimated 25 billion dollars in investment has been predicted.
In Hythe, some 480 kilometres (300 miles) northwest of Edmonton, former Christian Reform evangelical pastor Wiebo Ludwig says that oil and gas projects that now encircle his farm have killed more than 50 of his livestock, caused three miscarriages among women in his family and caused birth defects in four grandchildren.
"We have to do something. It's not only our problem, but we have to do this for all of Alberta. We have to stop this awful pollution," says Mamie Ludwig, his wife. The Ludwigs have battled in vain for government hearings on the health effects of gas production.
Backing the Ludwigs is the Rocky Mountain Ecosystem Coalition (RMEC) in Calgary. "It's easy to discount the Ludwigs as lunatics. But the issue they're dealing with, emissions from oil and gas facilities, is not a made-up problem. It's very real," says Mike Sawyer, director of RMEC.
A war of words has broken out between the oil companies and the environmental protestors. The companies allege that the protestors have sabotaged equipment, claiming that the Ludwig was responsible for an oil well explosion at a Suncor Energy wellsite on August 24.
The charges were dropped in September. "The prosecutor reviewed all of the evidence that the police had collected and concluded that there was no reasonable likelihood of a conviction based upon the evidence," said Peter Tadman, justice department spokesman.
Oil companies like the Alberta Energy Company have tried to buy out the Ludwigs, offering them C$520,000 (US338,000) to leave the province, which they have rejected.
Meanwhile in northeastern Alberta industry experts say that the waste created by Suncor near Fort McMurray, some 400 kilometres (250 miles) northeast of Edmonton, poses an environmental threat worse than the Exxon Valdez disaster.
Brian Staszenski of the Edmonton-based Environmental Resource Centre, an information agency funded by government and industry, has warned that if a flood or earthquake were to knock holes in the massive sand dikes containing the lakes, the spill of toxic waste could pollute the Athabasca River all the way to the Mackenzie Delta in the Northwest Territories.
The oily waste water is a byproduct of the process used to recover oil from the tarry sands. For every barrel of oil recovered, two and a half barrels of liquid waste are pumped into the huge ponds. The massive Syncrude pond, which measures 22 kilometers (14 miles)in circumference, has six meters (20 feet) of murky water on top of a 40-meter-thick (133 feet) pudding of sand, silt, clay and unrecovered oil.
SOURCE: "In rural Alberta, resource firms targeted by sabotage campaign," by David Crary, Associated Press, October 28, 1998. "Charges dropped against pastor, kin in oil-well blast" Grande Prarie Herald-Tribune, September 10, 1998. "Alberta's black gold rush" by Christopher Genovali, Canadian Dimension, March 13, 1997. "Critics say oil-sands waste poses major environmental problems" By Larry Johnsrude, The Ottawa Citizen, January 19, 1992.
OIL SHALE Youngquist: "As of 1997 no oil from oil shale is being produced in the U.S... or anywhere else."
"A variety of processes have been tried. All have failed. Unocal, Exxon, Occidental Petroleum, and other companies and the U.S. Bureau of Mines have made substantial efforts but with no commercial results."
NET ENERGY Gever et al. has calculated that if we wait until the oil "peak" before starting a crash program in alternative energy systems, net energy could drop to 30% of present values before starting to climb again. [p. 255]
Anyone who thinks that the consumer society can survive the depletion of oil is nuts. ( And before anyone brings up coal, natural gas, ethanol, hydrates, nuclear, or solar, please read http://dieoff.com/page143.htm )
Jay ------------------------- COMING SOON TO A LOCATION NEAR YOU! http://dieoff.com/page1.htm