Canadian oil sands
As conventional oil supplies continue to Peak in countries around the world and prices for the remaining supplies inevitably rise unconventional carbon energy sources are being sought and exploited with more and more urgency regardless of both the economic and environmental costs.
Coal seam gas is one case in point close to home. Very deep sea drilling of oil in places like off the southern Victorian coast are another. And Canadian oil sands are another.
The Canadian province of Alberta only realized in 2002 that it had oil sand reserves that put it in 3rd place after Saudi Arabia and Venezuala for the largest oil reserves on the planet. Proven reserves of oil sands are 175.2 billion barrels.
The oil sands are a mix of bitumen (black pungent and thick like tar) and quartz sand lying just beneath Alberta’s forest.
Turning the tar-like substance into oil is an energy-intensive process that generates a lot of carbon emissions. Surface mining the sands devastates large areas of forests and leaves toxic tailings collected in large ponds. Some technical processes for extracting deeper sands are now being developed as well.
Alberta wants to sell the oil from oil sands to the US market but the US has enacted legislation (the Energy Independence and Security Act) that blocks it. China would take it but it needs to be shipped through the maritime Canadian state of British Columbia and they are also blocking it.
It is an odd state of affairs but seems to contain the main elements of the new carbon energy game:
higher prices make much more marginal energy sources feasible to extract
supply shortage creates demand at almost any price
the opportunity to profit will not stand in the way of environmental destruction
energy independence is essential for national sovereignty.