On Mon, 27 Dec 2004 18:58:45 -0800, running dogg wrote:

I've heard that Canada has as much oil in the tar shoals as Saudi Arabia
has in the ground, but the stuff in Canada can't be extracted at a
profit. That will probably change in 20 years, however...

Absolute rubbish. They are making a fine profit. The problem is
the capital cost is in the billions of $$$s. Unlike the Saudis who
only need to punch a hole in the ground for a few tens of millions, if
that.

The costs on a per barrel basis were, five or seven years ago, $12 per
barrel. So they're making good money.

One major problem is simply that there aren't enough skilled tradesmen
such as welders and pipefitters in North America to do the job.

There are something like $40 or $50 billion worth of plants on the
drawing boards for the Alberta tar sands.

Tony (who lives in Alberta)