The Oil Sands and the World Energy Outlook

International Energy Agency (IEA) executive director Nobuo Tanaka noted that

Suffice it to say at a certain point consumers started driving less, flying less, spending less–using less carbon-based fuel. As aggregate demand for energy declined steeply along with the global economy, however, companies began to scale back, postpone and/or cancel planned development projects.

At the same time, the era of easy energy is over; more and more development is focused on hard-to-reach and/or difficult-to-produce reserves. Satisfying global energy needs is becoming more and more complex. Marginal production costs are clearly rising, and realized prices must remain at elevated levels to make certain critical projects economic.

Determining what seems a magical level of sustainability–the per barrel price that allows E&P companies to efficiently find and deliver supply and demand isn