Ahkenaten
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« Reply #15 on: July 05, 2008, 08:44:27 AM » |
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Alberta has seen US$6-7 billion in new industry capital this year alone. We've had two booms before but this one looks like it's going to be the largest and longest running one yet. I repeat, $6-7 billion this year alone. It represents far and away the single largest level of capital in this country. And this, clearly, is just the beginning. The region's population is projected to grow by about 43 per cent in the next five years, all because of the oil sands. The National Energy Board estimates there are approximately 1.6 trillion barrels of crude BITUMEN saturating the ground in northern Alberta. Bitumen - a form of heavy, thick oil laden with sulphur and deficient in hydrogen - can be refined into synthetic crude oil to make everything from gasoline to plastics. It is the lifeblood of every industrialized economy. According to the Alberta Energy and Utilities Board, about 178 billion barrels of bitumen are economically recoverable using existing technology - enough to produce more than 150 billion barrels of crude.
If these estimates are accurate, Canada's oil reserves rank second behind only Saudi Arabia's 260 billion barrels. And there are many who believe the current oil sands assessments understate the true potential here. The AEUB has projected that rising prices and improved technology could ultimately push the oil sands yield close to 300 billion barrels, which would make it the richest petroleum field in the world. By 2015, the oil sands are expected to be producing roughly three million barrels of petroleum a day. Assuming prices will average US$40 a barrel (well below where they are today), that suggests annual revenues of close to US$43 billion.
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Even now, most Canadians still don't fully grasp the significance of the industry, says Rick George, the president and chief executive of Suncor. "There's going to be $6 or $7 billion in new capital put into this business this year," he says. "What other industry is putting that level of capital into the country? There's no comparison that I'm aware of. And you will see that each and every year for the next 10 years, if not the next 20. Obviously that's a huge benefit to the country. And thats just the oil sands. We have regular oil too.  heh heh. Let the good times roll. Ahk |
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« Last Edit: July 05, 2008, 08:49:24 AM by Ahkenaten »
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Popeye
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« Reply #16 on: July 07, 2008, 09:30:23 AM » |
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Drilling on only 0.01 percent of ANWR's 19 million acres was projected to produce about 10 billion barrels of oil. From all domestic sources combined, we currently produce about 1.8 billion barrels of oil per year. To a layperson like myself, 10 billion barrels seems like a lot of oil.
There's a dirty little secret that missing from this flawed logic. Oil companies today have 41 million acres of oil leases in the Gulf of Mexico. They are currently only pumping on 10.2 million of those acres. And those 40 acres have 79% of the offshore oil reserves in the continental US. The oil is already there, the leases are in place, the infrastructure to process the oil is there. So why are the oil companies not drilling? Perhaps it's because they need prices high to justify the profits that they're taking on gasoline today, and the margins are easier to justify at $4 a gallon than at $3 a gallon. Perhaps it's because it costs at least $146 a barrel to pump out of those fields. If so, it will only cost more to build out the infrastructure in Alaska, so prices would never be relaxed. Perhaps it's because this is an election year, and they believe they can get sensitive leases if there's a public energy crisis. Regardless, Ann Coulter (and Reaganite) are, as they say, simple laypersons that do not understand this issue. |
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Patton
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« Reply #17 on: July 07, 2008, 09:41:43 AM » |
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How accessable is this oil?
What are the risks involved?
Can you please show us?
Thanks.
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« Last Edit: July 07, 2008, 10:05:22 AM by Patton »
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Battle is the most magnificent competition in which a human being can indulge. It brings out all that is best; it removes all that is base. All men are afraid in battle. The coward is the one who lets his fear overcome his sense of duty. Duty is the essence of manhood
-George S. Patton
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Abraxas
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« Reply #18 on: July 07, 2008, 10:01:18 AM » |
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Oil companies today have 41 million acres of oil leases in the Gulf of Mexico. They are currently only pumping on 10.2 million of those acres. And those 40 acres have 79% of the offshore oil reserves in the continental US. The oil is already there, the leases are in place, the infrastructure to process the oil is there. Sources? |
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Either you repeat the same conventional doctrines everybody is saying, or else you say something true, and it will sound like its from Neptune.
- Noam Chomsky
... you can almost see the high water mark - that place where the wave finally broke and rolled back.
- Hunter S. Thompson
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Toaster
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« Reply #19 on: July 07, 2008, 10:06:51 AM » |
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DISCUSSION, n.
A method of confirming others in their errors.
The Devil\\'s Dictionary
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Patton
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« Reply #20 on: July 07, 2008, 10:21:12 AM » |
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This basically describes and shows the 25 miles off ALL our shores.......wheres the oil?
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Battle is the most magnificent competition in which a human being can indulge. It brings out all that is best; it removes all that is base. All men are afraid in battle. The coward is the one who lets his fear overcome his sense of duty. Duty is the essence of manhood
-George S. Patton
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Popeye
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« Reply #21 on: July 07, 2008, 10:32:12 AM » |
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How accessable is this oil?
What are the risks involved?
Can you please show us?
Thanks.
Those are good questions. First off, the accessibility of the oil is challenging. It's deep, and the extraction process is more expensive than shallow water pumping. However, the government has been forgiving some royalty costs as an incentive to invest in deep pumping. More data on this is at this link, and if you don't want to read the whole report, look at figure 2 on pg 19. http://www.gomr.mms.gov/PDFs/2007/2007-020.pdfI find no evidence that deep water pumping is of any additional ecological risk than shallow water pumping. There is some economic risk, though, because the government only is providing royalty relief in two year increments, and so the cost structure of pumping the oil is subject to change. Regardless, there is significant supply in existing leases, and no practical way to pump the oil in volume from ANWR for 10 years. There are no drilling ships available as a temporary measure for the next 2 years. Drilling in the ANWR is an emotional, not factual debate. |
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Patton
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« Reply #22 on: July 07, 2008, 10:44:50 AM » |
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I guess it depends on where we are 10 years from now.
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Battle is the most magnificent competition in which a human being can indulge. It brings out all that is best; it removes all that is base. All men are afraid in battle. The coward is the one who lets his fear overcome his sense of duty. Duty is the essence of manhood
-George S. Patton
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Abraxas
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« Reply #23 on: July 07, 2008, 10:57:13 AM » |
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I guess it depends on where we are 10 years from now.
I'd rather be off of oil completely... or well on our way. Personally, I think we'll be 10 years closer to fusion technology, which may make this whole energy debate a laughable joke in a few decades. Polywell Fusor I'm ready to forget solar and get me one of these! |
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Either you repeat the same conventional doctrines everybody is saying, or else you say something true, and it will sound like its from Neptune.
- Noam Chomsky
... you can almost see the high water mark - that place where the wave finally broke and rolled back.
- Hunter S. Thompson
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Popeye
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« Reply #24 on: July 07, 2008, 11:02:55 AM » |
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I guess it depends on where we are 10 years from now.
That's a really, really good point. If we're still increasing oil consumption by 2.5% a year, we're in deep trouble irrespective of drilling in ANWR or not. If we've sent a significant percentage of our wealth to OPEC nations for the next 10 years, we're in deep trouble. If the dollar continues to fall for the next 10 years, we're in deep trouble. There may be good reasons for extracting oil out of the ANWR someday. I personally don't believe that taking that action now, just to make it affordable for all of us to drive Hummers or Escalades or Dodge Rams with Hemis is a good reason. I personally do believe that it is very important to put a near term action in place to reduce exporting our wealth to oil producing countries, and the only viable option is the Gulf of Mexico, NOT the ANWR. |
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Patton
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« Reply #25 on: July 07, 2008, 11:07:42 AM » |
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I've never heard of this.
Is it a realistic alternative?
If it's not cheap and easy....I don't know if Americans will bite.
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Battle is the most magnificent competition in which a human being can indulge. It brings out all that is best; it removes all that is base. All men are afraid in battle. The coward is the one who lets his fear overcome his sense of duty. Duty is the essence of manhood
-George S. Patton
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Abraxas
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« Reply #26 on: July 07, 2008, 11:43:05 AM » |
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I've never heard of this.
Is it a realistic alternative? From what I've read and what I've heard (from people *I* consider to be reliable), this is closer then we think. More... (with other links)…let me suggest the following exercise. Let’s assume that a Polywell reactor is in the wiffleball mode, namely that:
n*kBolt*Te = B**2/(2*mu0)
to make it simple, let’s use mks units and assume B = 10 Tesla, mu0 =4.0e-7*pi, Te = 1.0e4 eV and kBolt = 1.6022e-19 Joules per eV.
Calculate what n is and compare it to the ITER value at http://www.iter.org/a/index_nav_4.htm Tell me what you get.
…
What you will find is that the average density of ITER is ~ 1.0e20/m**3. If you use the formula I sent you for the Polywell, you will get a density ~ 2.5e22/m**3. The upshot of this is that the Polywell has a power density that is ~ 62500 times bigger than ITER EVEN IF THERE IS NO ION CONVERGENCE! Thus, a Polywell should far outperform a Tokamak even with a constant density Maxwellian plasma.OK, that was probably way too technical. Basically, he’s saying that one of the primary criticisms of Polywell fusion’s viability — that it would collapse to thermal equilibrium rather than maintaining a core region of higher energy density — might not matter, even though that criticism is probably wrong anyway. If it's not cheap and easy....I don't know if Americans will bite. No, it's not cheap, but it is surprisingly easy to understand... well, to anyone with a basic understanding of physics (I understand the theories behind it, anyway) - but how many "regular Joe's" out there really understand how their own internal combustion engine works? Or their iPod? Regardless, the Navy has been funding it for YEARS, so it's not a crack-pot theory or anything. |
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« Last Edit: July 07, 2008, 11:45:25 AM by Abraxas »
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Either you repeat the same conventional doctrines everybody is saying, or else you say something true, and it will sound like its from Neptune.
- Noam Chomsky
... you can almost see the high water mark - that place where the wave finally broke and rolled back.
- Hunter S. Thompson
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Biker Dude
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« Reply #27 on: July 08, 2008, 04:24:56 AM » |
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If it looks to outperform a Tokamak, then there will be money spent on it...
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 Who will watch the watchers?Now that it is over, what are we going to talk about? |
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Abraxas
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« Reply #28 on: July 08, 2008, 06:44:10 AM » |
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If it looks to outperform a Tokamak, then there will be money spent on it...
The math says it will... now they just need to build a bigger prototype... |
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Either you repeat the same conventional doctrines everybody is saying, or else you say something true, and it will sound like its from Neptune.
- Noam Chomsky
... you can almost see the high water mark - that place where the wave finally broke and rolled back.
- Hunter S. Thompson
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