Ex-Rep Foley's contradiction.

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Originally Posted by MasterBlaster

So you cheer because war in the middle east causes oil prices to go up?

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No, generally we just wait for Bush to attack one of the countries, make some inflammatory remark, or diss one of the OPEC members..... (basically, just to continue being the intelligent statesman that he is) that's enough to send the price of oil back up :)

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Originally Posted by Ex-FB

In fact, just to show that people shouldn't take these things too seriously (as they appear to be doing), I will end the argument by categorically conceeding the whole argument to MasterBlaster.

I conceed that he is completely right, and that if the middle east stops producing oil:-
- the world will be filled with starving people
- I will be out of work as the Canadian oil company that employs me will have gone bankrupt because of the incredible profits they will be making now that they are the major supplier of oil to the rest of the world
- Luckily, because I will be out of work, I won't have to worry about picking my way around all the starving Canadians, as we both agree, there is no way the second largest country in the world could possibly feed 30 million people

There, is everyone happy now? :)

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I think you're wrong. Canada has lots of oil. Didn't they just open that massive Tarzan oil field?

While Canada does have the 2nd largest oil reserve of any nation (other than Saudi Arabia) they are still not on of the top 10 producers of oil yet. From what I understand a lot of the oil has been previously either hard to reach or not economical to pull out of the ground. With record prices for oil over the past several years it has been more economical for Canada to ramp up oil production. I have heard that a lot of Canadian oil is trapped in what they call oil sands and it takes a lot to extract that oil both in cost and environmental damage.

The US is the 3rd largest producer of oil in the world (behind Saudi Arabia and Russia), however most of that production is used internally. With Canada producing more and more oil it will help alleviate the US and their dependence on the Middle East and unstable oil producing nations, which I think is a good thing. If Canada tapped its full reserves it could become one of the greatest oil producing nations on the planet, even rivaling Saudi Arabia.

X

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Originally Posted by Xanith

While Canada does have the 2nd largest oil reserve of any nation (other than Saudi Arabia) they are still not on of the top 10 producers of oil yet. From what I understand a lot of the oil has been previously either hard to reach or not economical to pull out of the ground. With record prices for oil over the past several years it has been more economical for Canada to ramp up oil production. I have heard that a lot of Canadian oil is trapped in what they call oil sands and it takes a lot to extract that oil both in cost and environmental damage.

The US is the 3rd largest producer of oil in the world (behind Saudi Arabia and Russia), however most of that production is used internally. With Canada producing more and more oil it will help alleviate the US and their dependence on the Middle East and unstable oil producing nations, which I think is a good thing. If Canada tapped its full reserves it could become one of the greatest oil producing nations on the planet, even rivaling Saudi Arabia.

X

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The amount of reserves is sort of misleading. For example it takes more energy to extract a barrel of Shale oil that the energy actually contained in that barrel. Oil sands are close but still slightly profitable to extract. Canada the US and Russia are loaded with shale and or sand oils and count them as part of their reserves.

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Originally Posted by MasterBlaster

The amount of reserves is sort of misleading. For example it takes more energy to extract a barrel of Shale oil that the energy actually contained in that barrel. Oil sands are close but still slightly profitable to extract. Canada the US and Russia are loaded with shale and or sand oils and count them as part of their reserves.

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If the price stays high enough Canada can become a leading producer. I am not sure but I don’t think anyone counts the US and its vast Coal supply either. Coal can also be used to produce oil, currently most of the US coal production is being sent to China. If the US wanted I am sure it could use its vast coal supply and become totally energy independent....but then again they would have to get by the environmentalists first :)

X

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Originally Posted by Suzzi

Didn't they just open that massive Tarzan oil field?

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Tar Sands?

I agree about the cost of producing oil from the Tar Sands, but it should be born in mind that modern techniques have drastically reduced the cost needed to seperate the oil out. There is still a cut off point where it ceases to be profitable (as with all products). Our current production costs for the Tar Sands are about $10 a barrel. Now, that is just the cost for the manpower, machinery etc. to get it out of the ground. On top of this there is transportation costs, which for the US are cheap (because there are a number of pipelines running South), but for Canada to ship it overseas it starts to really add on to the price.

So, although it is more expensive to produce than middle eastern oil, there is still plenty of profit to be made.

At present Alberta is looking at quadrupling its production levels over the next 5 to 10 years (some $20 billion odd in new plants being built at present). Of course, to make this worthwhile there needs to be a market for it, at present they obviously see that market as the US. But the middle east isn't daft. If the US stops buying their oil, then they may be forced to drop the price of the oil to continue to generate the current profits that they are enjoying. If they do that, then it will force the price of the Canadian oil down. Will it every dip back below the proft level of $10+transport?, I don't know, but either way it will probably drive the price of oil downwards.

We are constantly reducing the cost of the extraction, and each time we do that we make more and more of the reserves recoverable. Usually when a countries reserves are posted, only the recoverable amount of oil is announced, which at present is some 300 billion barrels. But there is over another trillion barrels in the Tar Sands that aren't reported, because they are not recoverable with current methods. As methods improve, the size of the reported reserves increase. as long as the price stays high, the incentive to get at that extra trillion barrles will remain high.

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Originally Posted by Ex-FB

Tar Sands?

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Ah - that might be it. But they name other places after biblical figures, why not name one after Tarzan....?

You're just a laugh a minute. Get back to posting videos of hamsters being shot out of cannons.

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Originally Posted by Ex-FB

As for the second part of the statement, this is unfortunately a typical US view of Canada. Yes, a massive amount live in the south, almost all centred around the Trans-Canada railroad, but this does not mean that the rest of the land is uninhabitable. Yes, maybe 50% of Canada is snowbound, but that still leaves a very large area which is very arrable. Heck, I was just up in Edmonton (that's some 350 miles north of the US border I believe and it wa sin the mid 30's (Celcius). ......

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Any plans on vacationing in Edmonton any time soon. Unfortunate typical US View of Canada? If you mean People in the us can read a weather map, then yes. If you would like I'll post the latest weather map daily. We can watch it get colder everyday and maybe figure out why People in the Us think it's cold in canada.

Actually, with wind chill it was -39C in Calgary today (nippy) and we had the first real snow of the year. But heck, it's a month before Christmas. I believe the original point was that Canada was covered in snow all year round and therefore couldn't grow enough food to feed itself..... It is often joked that Canada only has two seasons (summer and winter) as they change so very quickly. Sure, it gets cold in November, but it gets warm again in April, ready for growing plenty more food. Do they grow much food in the rest of the US during the Winter (honest question, I don't know - though I do know they grow all year round in equatorial places).

In the summer the temperature is up in the +20's to +30's (Centigrade) so April to November, that's plenty of time and sunshine to grow food..... which was the original point.

Here's a quick chart from the local weather station.... (although the first couple of months of the year are not usually that warm, we had a chinoock in for the longest time)

:wave:

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Originally Posted by Ex-FB

Actually, with wind chill it was -39C in Calgary today (nippy) and we had the first real snow of the year. But heck, it's a month before Christmas. I believe the original point was that Canada was covered in snow all year round and therefore couldn't grow enough food to feed itself..... It is often joked that Canada only has two seasons (summer and winter) as they change so very quickly. Sure, it gets cold in November, but it gets warm again in April, ready for growing plenty more food. Do they grow much food in the rest of the US during the Winter (honest question, I don't know - though I do know they grow all year round in equatorial places).

In the summer the temperature is up in the +20's to +30's (Centigrade) so April to November, that's plenty of time and sunshine to grow food..... which was the original point.

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I was just looking out the window and the snow made me hungry for some fresh canadian glacier corn. LOL :bigyello:

Speaking of chinook, Tell the canadian comercial fishermen to take it easy on the fall Coho. The runs down here were pitifull this year.

Nov 28th

Updated Canadian Tropical weather report

http://www.trekearth.com/gallery/Nor...hoto218900.htm

Actually, the cold weather has caused an upsurge in violence..... see below


http://www.shortarmguy.com/SnowmanViolence.jpg

Blahahahahahhahahaha! :lol: Nice!