Thanks. I never really understood the oil sands or their production costs.
Reality is there is a wide range, just like shale.
You get reports that give the overall average in major media articles, but that is rarely a decent picture.
In the Bakken, the breakeven cost by county varies from the mid $30s to the $90s. To claim it costs $60 a barrel to produce oil in the Bakken is “accurate” but quite misleading. New production at $50/barrel is not going to stop in the Bakken, but be limited to the counties that cost less than that.