THE OIL SANDS SWEEPSTAKES

To understand the latest surge in the oil sands boom, break out your favourite Three Stooges flick.

At some point, the Stooges rush to leave a room, only to end up with all three wedged in the door frame. It is the Moe-Curly-Larry dilemma: What might work for one is defeated when everybody follows suit.

The Stooges’ dilemma is now hitting the oil sands, as the sector searches for an escape hatch from the escalating cost of building upgraders, those massive industrial complexes that turn low-value bitumen into pricey crude oil. Companies have begun to flee the overheating economy of Fort McMurray, at the heart of northern Alberta’s bitumen deposits, for the industrial land north of Edmonton.

Globe and Mail