[aculeus]

It's an old old story. Got several billion dollars in spare change? Then you can convert oil sands to oil.

We have similar deposits in the USA. Oil in great quantity but locked into clay or sand and difficult to extract.

[TheLurkerX]

That's what the electrostatic method is supposed to extract relatively easily. The way I understand it though, they are prevented from setting up production with it in this country by the current environmental laws. I'll see if I can find the story I read about it a couple of months ago.

[JulieRNR21]

Looks like an idea whose time has come! Thanks for this informative post.

[Vigilanteman]

There are no "comparable deposits" in the United States to Alberta's vast resources of tar sands. The closest thing are low grade coal deposits in the Dakotas and Montana and oil shale deposits on the eastern rim of the Rockies. Extraction technologies for both are far higher than for tar sands.

The one-two punch of developing tar sand extraction and fuel cell technology could give a knock-blow to the oil dictators of the world. So could military seizure of most strategic oil fields, which tend to be located in limited areas around the Gulf.

[Great Dane]

We have similar deposits in the USA. Oil in great quantity but locked into clay or sand and difficult to extract.

It's been done in Alberta for decades, granted it isn't as cost effective as pumping it out of a well.