Canadian tar sands production forecast to double
Developments this week from north of the border should cheer backers of the Hyperion Energy Center proposed for Union County, S.D.
According to a new study, crude production from oil sands in western Canada may more than double to 3.2 million barrels a day by 2020, Bloomberg reports.
For the projection, the London-based Centre for Global Energy Studies and Calgary-based Geopolitics Central assumed average annual global economic growth of 3.6 percent over the next 10 years. Slower economic growth would mean extraction of the crude would rise to 2.4 million barrels a day from about 1.21 million barrels last year.
Hyperion’s proposed refinery would process 400,000 barrels per day from Alberta’s vast oil sands fields. The Texas-based company has not yet secured a supplier or a pipeline to carry the crude to southeast South Dakota.
Canada’s heavy oil sands are more expensive to extract than conventional crude deposits, making them more sensitive to a downturn in the economy. Environmental groups are fighting to slow or stop production of the dirtier crude, which they claim fouls and air and land on both sides of the border.
The Canadian government has mounted its biggest campaign yet to sell key U.S. policy makers on the energy security benefits of the tar sands oil, the Calgary Herald reports, “Canada steps up oil sands push in United States.”
“Canadian Natural Resources Minister Lisa Raitt said she and her staff are lobbying interests in the United States at all levels, trying to send the message that the huge heavy-oil resource in Alberta is being developed responsibly and that U.S. input on environmental fixes is welcome,” the Herald reports.
Tags: Alberta, Canada, crude, environment, Hyperion, oil refinery, tar sands, Union County