Alberta Oil Sands

Tony Conner_2

... those oil price payback numbers were for new construction during the boom. As soon as oil tickled $60/bbl on the way back up, several big projects were revived here. The Shell upgrader expansion project (it slowed down, but never stopped) just north of Edmonton has about 7,500 guys working on it. Lots of calls at the UA 488 hall for steamfitters & welders - to the point they're running ads (large ones) in the newspaper looking for guys to fill them. Licence plates from all over Canada in the parking lots - I've even seen a couple from the US - Minnesota & Illinois. There was a non-union outfit running drive-time radio ads looking for guys (variety of trades) for a project in Ft. McMurray. Billboards along the highway looking for electricians & instrument mechanics.

It's not nearly the boom here that it was, but it's sure not bad.

Glen Aspen_2

Great Photos -

It's big, messy and supplying a lot of crude for Canada and the USA. Check out the photos of the northern lights as well.
http://www.cbc.ca/edmonton/features/photogallery/index.html?dataPath=/photogallery/regions/edmonton/gallery_2429/xml/gallery_2429.xml

Jim Bennett

Great pictures....

I have only seen northern lights once, many years ago. Very impressive! I will have to strive to view them again.

Thanks,

Jim

scott markle_2

oil sands bust

From what I understand, this source of oil only makes sense economically when oil is expensive. The massive growth and investment that was going on a year and a half ago has staled with the collapse of oil prices.

I'm sure it will pick up again when prices get back up to $90-100 per barrel.

Another thing to consider about these sources of energy is that they have a very high carbon output relative to the usable energy. This is because so much energy has to be expended to extract and process this material. Energy returned on energy invested has to be part of our accounting when we are considering the big picture.

As we approach peek oil, EROEI will become a huge factor in the cost and carbon impact of worlds remaining reserves.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EROEI

Glen

next door too -

it may have slowed and let the industry catch its breath - but as you say our local is still busy. Calls remain unfilled each day. And on the coal side - Keephills #3 is moving along with number 4 on its heels. Fab shops here are now starting work for major projects in Sask - I would think there will be a steady call for TC's for some time. And regardless of the argument re clean or dirty oil, or cost per unit production (about twice light sweet crude) or the high requirement of water for processing - oil is still needed by our industries to keep our countries moving. And its on this side of the pond. It is such an attractive source that oil companies from Europe are investing here too - that may raise some eyebrows given their inclination towards green, but they want a piece of it too.

Jack

I worked on

the first edition of the "tar sands" back in '77. It was another boom town for me back then. Beaumont (refinery), Pasco (nuke), Edmonton (tar sand), Craig (tar sand) and others. The Craig project was the very definition of a boom town. It shut down one day and you could not believe the number of people trying to get out of NW CO. It took a long time, as the hwy hadn't opened up yet.

I have a lot of good stories from those days, but somehow, they become less funny as time goes by;)

Rich Kontny_3

I talked to ............

The Business Agent for 488 in March, at that time they were not hiring only taking names. The low price for oil did indeed slow down the boom. Caterpillar(who was supplying equipment) also felt this as their sales were hit by the slowdown.

The oil is still there, payback has to be there too in order to make it profitable.