[me2]

I've heard rumors that refining tarsand into crude takes a lot of natural gas. Can anyone confirm this ?

With all the development and new production in the Alberta tarsands, where will this natural gas come from ?

[Motel]

Going by CAPP's numbers (Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers) production right now takes about 400 cubic feet per barrel of oil produced. In 2004 approximately one million barrels per day were produced from the tar sands plants and the productive capacity of natural gas in Canada was about 6.25 trillion cubic feet. This means that in 2004 oil production at the tar sands used up about two and a half per cent of the natural gas productive capacity.

By 2015 the tar sands are expected to be producing 2.7 million barrels a day and the productive capacity will be up around 8.25 trillion cubic feet, meaning that the oil production will use closer to 5% of the natural gas capacity.

The problem is that the gas that's easily accessible for Syncrude and Suncor (what's in the sedimentary basin in western Canada) is going to peak earlier than production in the rest of the country. Going by the graph from CAPP with numbers from the CERI (Canadian Energy Research Institute) productive capacity in the basin will peak around 2009.

I'll try and find the link with all the data. I was working these numbers out yesterday from a copy of the graph I had printed a while ago.

[FatherOfTwo]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('me2', 'I')'ve heard rumors that refining tarsand into crude takes a lot of natural gas. Can anyone confirm this ?

With all the development and new production in the Alberta tarsands, where will this natural gas come from ?

[Motel]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('FatherOfTwo', 'N')ew technologies are on the horizon that drastically reduce NG use

[nth]

http://www.opticanada.com/

These guys have exclusive license to a zero natural gas extraction process. They maybe the future.

I am sure with them coming on the scene, others are researching into similar methods.

[me2]

That is the extraction side of things.

I am speaking of refining, where natural gas is used to make a high hydrogen contect gas which is used to crack the heavy oil into lighter crude.

[MD]

The push will come when other natural gas users begin screaming for a greater share of dwindling supplies. A couple years from now at most? Then the sands-to-refined producers will be forced to other methods.

[FatherOfTwo]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('me2', 'T')hat is the extraction side of things.

I am speaking of refining, where natural gas is used to make a high hydrogen contect gas which is used to crack the heavy oil into lighter crude.