Posted on 03/20/2006 1:55:02 PM PST by Daralundy
The millions of barrels of crude oil developed from Canadian oil sands in the coming decades could be shipped to the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, the West Coast or Asia, Suncor Energy Inc. Chief Executive Richard George said on Monday.
Suncor pioneered the production of oil from oil sands or bitumen in Alberta "where the oil isn't under the sand, it's wrapped around the sand," George said in a speech at the National Petrochemical and Refiners Association annual meeting in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Suncor is now producing 260,000 barrels of oil per day from oil sands and expects the output to grow to 3 million barrels by 2015 and 5 million barrels per day by 2030.
Current production goes to Canada and is exported to the U.S. Rocky Mountain and Midwest states.
"While the Midwest and Rocky Mountain markets should continue to benefit from stable supplies from Canada, we'll need to reach further into the market as those millions of new barrels come on stream in the coming decades," George said.
Gulf connections could be made by extending existing pipelines. California could be reached by building pipelines to terminals for tankers to run from Canada's west coast to refineries in California.
"The Gulf Coast holds obvious attractions," he said. "It's the largest refining complex in the world. And with about half of the United States' coking and hydrocracking capacity, it already has the right pots and pans to run a wide variety of oil sands product slates."
California's refineries also have the capability to process high-density and high-sulfur crude oil "that could align with oil sands products," George said.
Oil production from the Alaska North Slope and California is declining, leaving California refiners to look for imports from Latin America.
"Of course, the same West Coast pipes that would open the California market also open the Asian market," he said. The large economies of Japan, Korea, and especially China are hungry for a stable supply of crude."
Kinder Morgan Inc. has already announced plans to extend pipelines from Alberta to the Canadian west coast and U.S. Puget Sound.
ping
Suncor is a Canadian energy company. The stock symbol is SU on the NYSE. They are average or a little better in the industry.
At $60 a barrel for oil, North America could easily become 100% energy independent with oil sands, oil shale and coal.... all converted very profitably into fuel.
I guarantee you that if the Republicans don't run with this, some smart democrat is going to win on this platform.
They've run a pretty good outfit over the last ten years. Suncor bought the former Conoco refinery in Denver and runs one of its two crude units on syncrude piped down from Alberta to make gasoline and diesel for the Rocky Mountain market. I expect they're on the hunt for more bargains like Denver.
Its too complicated for the folks in office right now. Some fresh thinking, like Suncor's, would be useful in D.C.
Ahhhhhhh A pipeline to pump the crude down.
We need all the imports we can find.
Actually, the landscape looks no worse than it did before it was mined. Imagine a beach after an oil spill and you'll get some idea of that region's natural state.
Natural gas was discovered off the west coast of Ireland in the '90s - but there are idiots who are objecting to bringing it in because they are a afraid the onshore refinery will be dangerous - such a mindset is bad, no good is ever done without risk, and I guess my point that is relevant to this thread is energy independence is good!!
But I don't think the oil-sands really got going full bore until after oil prices passed $30 for good.
There are 300 billion barrels of economically recoverable oil in those sands as of now, with something like 1.5 trillion barrels in the deposit, total.
They started getting serious in the early 90s when crude went above $20. At that time Suncor's break-even point was $13. Your assessment is correct about the other companies, though, because until fairly recently Suncor was the only serious player in oilsands development.
I understand there are four players, Suncor, Shell and two others. I was not surprised when Koch pulled out after millions invested. They will buy from Suncor, Shell, etc. Its not their philosophy to be third or fourth in any market.
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