THE OILSANDS IN ALBERTA: THE OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES

JUST WHAT ARE THE OILSANDS Oil Sands are deposits of bitumen, a molasses-like viscous oil that will not flow unless heated or diluted with lighter hydrocarbons They are contained in three major areas beneath 140,200 square kilometres of north-eastern Alberta - an area larger than the state of Florida an area twice the size of New Brunswick, more than four and half times the size of Vancouver Island, and 26 times larger than Prince Edward Island.

JUST WHAT ARE THE OILSANDS There are 175 billion barrels of proven oil reserves here. That’s second to Saudi Arabia’s 260 billion but it’s only what companies can get with today’s technology. However, only about two per cent of the initial established resource has been produced to date. The estimate of how many more barrels of oil are buried deeper underground is staggering. Clive Mather, Shell's Canada chief says the total estimates could be two trillion or even higher

HOW MUCH OF ALBERTA OIL WEALTH IS IN THE TAR SANDS In 2006 Alberta's oil sands were the source of about 62 per cent of the province's total crude oil and about 47 per cent of all crude oil produced in Canada. Over the last four fiscal years, from 2003/2004 to 2006/2007, oil sands development returned $4.276 billion to Albertans in the form of royalties paid to the provincial government. Current economic woes have hit the oil sands /story/2009/02/27/f- oilsands-challenges.html

WHAT IS THE CURRENT STATE OF DEVELOPMENT Annual oil sands production is growing steadily as the industry matures. Output of marketable oil sands production increased to million barrels per day (bbl/d) in With anticipated growth, this level of production could reach 3 million barrels per day by 2020 and possibly even 5 million barrels per day by 2030.

HISTORY OF THE TAR SANDS Commercial production of Alberta's oil sands began in 1967 when the precursor to Suncor launched the Great Canadian Oil Sands plant, which is located in Fort McMurray Syncrude opened the second major facility in the region in Other major players include Imperial Oil, Shell Canada, ConocoPhillips, and China National Petroleum Corp. Since 1967, approximately 4.6 billion barrels of the non-conventional resource have been produced. Much of the growth in oil sands production has occurred since the beginning of this decade

THE CHALLENGES OF THE OILSANDS The oil sands have been in the ground for millions of years, but for decades, prospectors lost millions of dollars trying to squeeze the oil out of the sand. It simply cost too much. But then $40 a barrel happened and the oil sands not only made sense, they made billions for the people digging them The oil sands then go into a plant. They’re heated in a cell, which separates the oil from the sand. This oil froth is then sent to an upgrader and eventually to a refinery. This has held production costs to around $27 per barrel of synthetic crude oil

THE CHALLENGES OF THE OILSANDS It takes about two tonnes of oil sands to produce one barrel of oil Oil sands producers move enough earth every two days to fill Toronto’s Skydome Large amounts of water are used for oil sands operations – Greenpeace gives the number as 349 million cubic metres per year, twice the amount of water used by the city of Calgary Environment Canada claims the oil sands make up 5% of Canada's greenhouse gas emissions, It predicts the oil sands will grow to make up 8% of Canada's greenhouse gas emissions by 2015 While the emissions per barrel of bitumen produced decreased 26% over the decade [, total emissions were expected to increase due to higher production levels

CONVENTIONAL OIL SUPPLY IS DECLINING

THE CHALLENGES OF THE OILSANDS A million barrels a day are now coming out of the oil sands and oil production is expected to triple within a decade. It won’t replace Middle Eastern oil but at that point it will be the single largest source of foreign oil for the United States, even bigger than Saudi Arabia, which sends a million and a half barrels a day to America. The oil companies pay some of the highest salaries in North America.

THE CHALLENGES OF THE OILSANDS Creating energy from oil sands requires so much energy that the oil companies wind up spiking greenhouse gas emissions. The oil companies say they will reduce greenhouse gasses and they point out they are required by Canadian law to refill old mines and plant new trees, and that is happening — slowly. One company, Syncrude, has even introduced bison to land that once was a barren pit.

WHAT IS FAIR FOR ALBERTAN’S IN TERMS OF ROYALTIES pdfs/RoyaltyTerms_OilSands.pdfhttp:// pdfs/RoyaltyTerms_OilSands.pdf Prior to the economic downturn, these were the new proposed rates of energy royalties For years some in Alberta have criticized the royalty rates as too low, which allows for excessive profit by the oil developers Others argue that the low rates have been a major contributor to the economic success of Alberta by encouraging development of the oil sands and other projects ch?v=CsbUgj1t8A8http:// ch?v=CsbUgj1t8A8