Canada goes after the energy in the tar sands

Journal Article · Mon May 22 04:00:00 EDT 1978 · Fortune; (United States)

OSTI ID:6430228

Nulty, P

The Athabasca tar sands are scattered across a boggy wilderness in northern Alberta. Until recently, the cost of getting at that oil was discouragingly high. But now, with growing energy demands, rising world oil prices, and a pledge of subsidies from the Canadian government, the tar sands are at last beginning to yield oil on an impressive scale. Over the next quarter century they will be taking out a billion barrels. Syncrude Canada Ltd., a coalition of three oil companies and three governments, has been patched together to keep Canada's energy development moving ahead and will now develop the tar sands. The Syncrude project will not make a major contribution to world oil supplies. What it will do is add greatly to our understanding the complex tasks ahead in developing alternate sources of liquid fuel. It is the first full-scale commercial installation on the rich, nearly virgin energy frontier of tar sand, shale oil, and coal liquefaction. Syncrude demonstrates that the development of liquid fuel from shale and coal in the U.S., no less than from tar sand in Canada, will be expensive and slow. The Athabasca sands are the largest on Earth and could eventually yield 200 billion barrels of synthetic crude. That is almost twice as much oil as the U.S. has produced to date and nearly one-third of present Middle East reserves. (MCW)

• OSTI ID: 6430228
• Journal Information: Fortune; (United States), Journal Name: Fortune; (United States) Vol. 97:10; ISSN FORTA
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

04 OIL SHALES AND TAR SANDS
040400 -- Oil Shales & Tar Sands-- Oil Production
Recovery
& Refining
29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY
294004* -- Energy Planning & Policy-- Oil Shales & Tar Sands
ATHABASCA DEPOSIT
BITUMINOUS MATERIALS
CANADA
CARBONACEOUS MATERIALS
COAL LIQUEFACTION
DEMAND FACTORS
ECONOMICS
ENERGY SOURCE DEVELOPMENT
ENERGY SOURCES
FEDERAL ASSISTANCE PROGRAMS
FOSSIL FUELS
FUELS
GEOLOGIC DEPOSITS
LIQUEFACTION
MINERAL OILS
NORTH AMERICA
OIL SAND DEPOSITS
OIL SANDS
OIL SHALE DEPOSITS
OIL YIELDS
OILS
ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
OTHER ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
PRODUCTION
RESOURCES
SHALE OIL
SYNTHETIC FUELS
SYNTHETIC PETROLEUM
THERMOCHEMICAL PROCESSES
YIELDS