by billp » Sun 09 Sep 2007, 23:04:53
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'W')hen installed nuclear, solar, wind, and hydro is not sufficient to maintain installed nuclear, solar, wind, and hydro
Try when Athabaskan tar sands are not sufficient to maintain Athabaskan tar sands bitumen production.
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'T')ypically, tar sands are produced using natural gas to heat the steam that drives the oil out of the sands. It takes a lot of gas to do this: over 1,000 cubic feet--about $8 worth--to produce one barrel of bitumen.
At the current production level of about 1 mpbd, the tar sands operations consume about 4% of Canada's natural gas supply. So quadrupling production would consume fully 16% of the supply, and completely max out the gas market. Nearly all estimates for tar sands operations over the next ten years exceed the projections for available amounts of natural gas!
Canada's natural gas supplies are running out fast. Numbers from the EIA and the NEB suggest that its proven reserves of natural gas will be gone in about eight years.