[KevO]

"These Canadian oil sands will help keep American SUVs running in the years to come." that's what it says! phew. God made the SUV. Satan is trying to take it away http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/12859931.htm

[evilmonkeyspanker]

I am sure

[MJ]

Pffiew, we're off the hook... that was a close one.

[peaker_2005]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('KevO', '&')quot;These Canadian oil sands will help keep American SUVs running in the years to come."
that's what it says! phew. God made the SUV. Satan is trying to take it away
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/12859931.htm

[Specop_007]

They dont have to get it out. Its sitting right there on top of the ground!!

[peaker_2005]

I was referring to getting the oil out of the sand/muck/whatever.

[Dukat_Reloaded]

The Idea of mining tar sands is an idea failed from the start. The Entire project was almost abanoned in 2003. From all the reports of trucks breaking their wheels and getting bogged in the tar ($5 million trucks) trying to carry tar sands over tar sands is insane. They have to process 2 tons of tar ore to get only one barrel of oil, it's a failed concept from the start. They are not making any money, all the money thats used to produce oil is being fed by investors trying to cash in on the oil boom, but when that bouble pops in tarsands, they won't be producing for long. Afew years down the track they will have to go deeper and process 2 to 3 times as much oil to get a barrel and even at current estimates to produce a barrel of ore from 2 tons of tarsands using more energy than what is obtained. From simply pumping sweet oil from the ground and piping it to using trucks to process ore and extract heavy crude is not viable. They claim $18 to produce a barrel of oil, thats not correct, It's more like $50 and it will increase much futher and with the comming economic depression the tarsands will not be viable as the company and the consumers could not afford to produce or buy the oil. Peakoil is about cheap oil, not expensive oil, if oil is expensive, noone can afford it. It's much like if people ate gold, say we could mine alot and sell it cheap for $1 an oz and that would keep a person fed, what would happen if gold becomes $500oz and everyone is only earning $50 aweek, it means alot of people will die.

[BabyPeanut]

They need to make an SUV that burns tar sands directly. Just shovel the goop into the hopper and take off.

[Starvid]

As a matter of fact, oil shale burning plants were seen as the only credible electricity generation method in Estonia (or was it Latvia?) until just a few years ago.

[dinopello]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('BabyPeanut', 'T')hey need to make an SUV that burns tar sands directly. Just shovel the goop into the hopper and take off.

[the_red_pill]

Dukat is right. You guys need to realize all that sand is not like pumping sweet light oil out of the ground. There is thing called diminishing returns on energy invested to get energy out. Sooner or later, the effort won't be worth the trouble of getting it.

The easy oil is over. Shale oil in sand is not easy oil.

Not to mention, Alberta will be an environmental mess....just so we can drive our stupid SUVs??

At best, this will be a temporary relief to hopefully hold us over until the real shitte hits the fan.

[fossilnut2]

What's the connection between shale extracted oil and our Alberta tarsands? . Keragen is extracted from shale and bitumin in tarsands.

I'm not surprised, however, by the confusion. Most folks don't even know that conventional oil is extracted from rock..they believe there are pools under the ground (like a big bathtub) and a pipe is stuck in and the oil is pumped out until the bathtub is empty. It's always the most surprising thing when folks take a tour of a drilling rig. Every time I've shown the unititiated a core sample (solid looking rock cylinders) and pointed out the porosity and the oil in the rock , they just don't get it.... they actually expected a big pool of liquid oil. Some still leave convinced there must be an underground cavern and don't realize the ground underneath is solid.

[KingM]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('fossilnut2', ' ')Some still leave convinced there must be an underground cavern and don't realize the ground underneath is solid.

[Peak_Modernity]

Fun Fact for the Day: 1 of those $5 million trucks burns a gallon of diesel every 1,000 feet . And you thought SUV's were bad

[fossilnut2]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('KingM', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('fossilnut2', ' ')Some still leave convinced there must be an underground cavern and don't realize the ground underneath is solid.

[turmoil]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Peak_Modernity', 'F')un Fact for the Day: 1 of those $5 million trucks burns a gallon of diesel every 1,000 feet . And you thought SUV's were bad

[Peak_Modernity]

I saw it on Modern Marvels on the History channel. I believe it, these trucks have 18 cylinder, 60 liter engines and weigh 1 million pounds loaded. They are like houses that drive.

Obviously they don't advertise their gas mileage, but here's a link to one of these beasts. Click on trucks and select "specs" for the 930E-3se http://www.komatsuamerica.com/index.cfm?resource_id=113

[0mar]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('stupid_monkeys', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Peak_Modernity', 'F')un Fact for the Day: 1 of those $5 million trucks burns a gallon of diesel every 1,000 feet . And you thought SUV's were bad

[turmoil]

lol, it holds 1200 U.S. gal (4542 L or 28.57 barrels) which means it can go 1,200,000 ft or ~273 miles/tank...

sigh...i hope the processing plants aren't too far from the mine.

42 gal / (5280 ft / 1000 ft) = ~7.95 miles / barrel

it uses a barrel of diesel every ~7.95 miles

how is this profitable again?

[Peak_Modernity]

It's electric drive and uses some kind of regenerative braking, but still must idle while being loaded. I have no idea how this is profitable, because you still need a loader (which also has the same size engine). You're burning tons a fuel before ever processing the tar/sands.