About Those "Bigger Than Saudi Arabia" Canadian Oil Sands...
By Vladimir Posted in Canada | Energy — Comments (5) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »
The stuff is gooey, requiring dilution with lighter oils so it can be pumped in pipelines to a refinery. And to the refiners, the stuff is of such low quality that its market value is much less than the per-barrel prices you see in the newspapers.
It operates at the economic margin. It is only economic when the price of lighter, conventional oil is high.
Along comes the Canadian Government to insure that that is a permanent condition:
Carbon capture plan feasible, companies say
Reaction from one industry analyst to word that Environment Minister John Baird plans to unveil new climate-change regulations this week was guarded, but optimistic. According to a story in Monday's Globe and Mail, the rules would force new oil sands projects and coal-fired electricity plants to capture and store the bulk of their greenhouse gases rather than spew them into the air.
“This is not a hurdle that can't be jumped over, call it a speed bump if you will,” said Stephen Calderwood, an analyst at Raymond James in Calgary. “It is not something that is technically difficult, but it is something that could be expensive.”
[snip]
Canada has set a target of cutting its greenhouse-gas emissions by 20 per cent below 2006 levels by 2020. It aims to cut emissions by 60 to 70 per cent by mid-century.
The target reductions cannot be met if Ottawa does not compel capture and storage of the substances in the two key industries of coal-fired electricity and oil sands. Oil sands production alone is expected to create 25 per cent of Canada's carbon-dioxide emissions by 2020, up from about 18 per cent now.
Oh, but I left out the best part: apparently Canadian taxpayers get to subsidize this insanity.
Alberta companies are confident carbon capture and storage can be implemented quickly, but say government funding and regulations are key to the pace of development.
H/T zmansenergybrain.com
Has anyone here considered how much mechanical work (and therefore, fossil fuel) it takes to separate CO2 from the atmosphere, compress it and store it?
I call those Canadian fields the "Vaseline in the Sand". Oil companies are groaning because they would have to refine something that actually needs more refining, if these fields are drilled out of necessity. So they wouldn't object to the sequestering regulations. Those regs will be lifted as soon as the economics dictate, or Canada will never get the business or the facilities off the ground.
If they must do this, they should at least work out a carbon tax or cap and trade instead. That would at the very least be preferable to this.
These oil sands are producing oil and the production folks know how to use additives and upgraders so that the oil can be pumped down the pipelines. I believe the various technologies (SAGD, huff and puff) are effectively producing these oil sands. They do produce a heavy crude but many US refineries are capable of processing the heavy crudes.
To me, Canadian oil sands are a national security issue for the US. If they drive up the cost of production then our national security suffers.
I don't think CCS is technologically feasible. These facilities use a lot of energy to produce steam for SAGD so carbon capture will be tremendously expensive.
I would hope that someone in the DOE is watching this and will do something about it.
That's their advanced technology.
There is more stupidity than hydrogen in the universe, and it has a longer shelf life. - Frank Zappa
Lets see they are at one a week now, this should let them do one every 6.5 days give or take.
______________________________
"Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it."
-Thomas Paine: The American Crisis, No. 4, 1777