[RayChuang88]

Here's the problem: it's REALLY expensive to extract out the oil from the Alberta Tar Sands and the Orinoco Oil Sands. The best method is a modified version of the high-pressure high temperature steam injection Shell did to extract oil from oil shale in Colorado so the oil can be extracted out in liquid form in situ, but that's a very exorbitantly expensive because you have to heat and pressurize the steam (and use a lot of water!) to accomplish this.

[LOC1]

The break-even value of extracting oil in Alberta is about $80 per barrel. The current production is above 1 million barrels per day and projected to reach 3 million barrels per day. Yes it is expensive, but it is possible. Same thing would be true for more of the Kern County crude oils, if it were not for California restrictions. Put it another way, if Kern County were in Texas, we would be recovering that crude oil.