<DrumBeat: April 14, 2007The Oil DrumDrumBeat: April 15, 2007>

55 comments on Soliciting Questions for the API Conference Call on Energy Issues

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SamuM on April 14, 2007 - 11:48am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

Any of the following (unless they are FAQs).

What do you consider the best & worst estimates for:

- water needs (as in gallons or liters of water / barrel of oil produced)
- energy needs (as Joule of input / barrel of oil produced)
- environmental damage (as in ground displacement, topsoil removal, groundwater contamination risk or whatever factors come into play)

for North American (e.g. Alberta) oil sands projects?

What do you see as significant barriers to large scale production from these resources?

What are the most optimistic projections for practical maximum production (barrels of oil/day) in future using current known tech?

When do you foresee production from oil sands scaling up to significant numbers (i.e. what year/time span or price level)?

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Dryki on April 14, 2007 - 12:34pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

How different is energy from low entropy? They are clearly related, in that energy is required to maintain the order. A healthy environment embodies more energy than a depleted one (waste?). If our economy is measured by the energy it uses, then won't our attempts to increase that directly decrease environmental quality? If we look at a silo over there of fossil sources and another silo elsewhere of water quality, the connection will be obscured.

If we burned 10% of all fossil energy during GWB's first term and are on track to do the same during his second, then I'm not even sure there IS a sane question to ask about how our energy use will degrade the environment. This is a variant on the gray goo meets ultimate heat death of planet problem, isn't it?

Yeah, what about my 401K?

cfm in Gray, ME

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WKO on April 15, 2007 - 11:51am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

SamuM, you will find answers to most of your questions in the Canadian National Energy Board document Canada's Oil Sands - Opportunities and Challenges to 2015: An Update, accessible from this page.

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