[Graeme]

Moneymakers

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'I')t's not Saudi Arabia. But there is oil in Kansas. In Montana and Missouri, too.

In fact, the lower 48 U.S. states contain enough heavy crude oil deposits to power the nation's economy for several years. But they've been largely overlooked in favor of much bigger heavy oil deposits in Canada's oil sands and elsewhere.

MegaWest Energy Corp. hopes to change that soon. The Calgary, Alberta-based firm, run from Houston, has been snatching up acreage in the U.S. and wants to prove heavy oils can be produced economically.

With light, sweet crude near $100 a barrel and demand rising, George Stapleton, president and CEO of MegaWest, said it's easier than ever to make a business case for extracting heavy crudes, which resemble molasses and must be treated before they can run in many oil refineries. Here are excerpts of reporter Brett Clanton's interview.

Q: How much heavy oil is there in North America?

A: In North America they estimate there's about 3 trillion barrels of heavy oil. The majority of that is in Canada, followed by a smaller amount in Mexico, and the U.S. is kind of the caboose, if you will. Between what the U.S. classifies as heavy oil and tar sands, there's about 155 billion barrels of that type of resource in the United States.