RE: salvation from tar pits?

This is really old news. And it isn't salvation. I keep repeating that
reserves (quantity of oil in the ground) doesn't really matter. It is
production rate which is the key to maintaining our lifestyle. I repeat
again. If I put a billion dollars in your bank account (lots of monetary
reserves) but tell you you can only get them out at $10 per day, are you
rich? Of course not. That is the nature of the Alberta tar sands.

Consider what tar sands do for the environment:

"Finally one should not forget the energy and water resources which are
needed to extract the oil from the ground. Just to give an idea of the
size of these efforts: today a quarter of all water used in Alberta is
directed to the oil and gas industry. Canadian Natural Resources Inc
(CNR) is investing about 5 billion Canadian dollars to push the
production rate of the project horizon 20 235 kb/d by 2011. Within that
project there are plans to divert a river for several miles and to use
the water to allow on-site extraction of 3.5 cubic meters per second.
Large extensions of these projects are simply not realistic when one
considers the needs for other resources and the environmental side
effects." Werner Zittel and Jorg Schindler, "Future World Oil Supply,"
Presented at the International Summer School On the Politics and
Economics of Renewable Energy at the University Salzburg, July 15, 2002

Also consider:

"Kjell Aleklett, president of the Association for the Study of Peak Oil
& Gas (ASPO), points out that "the next 10 years will see production in
the North Sea alone drop (by) 3 million b/d. It seems most unlikely that
production from tar sands, which is essentially a slow mining process,
could begin to compensate for this loss. " Bob Williams, "Heavy
hydrocarbons playing key role in peak-oil debate, future energy supply,"
Oil and Gas Journal, July 28,2003, p. 22-23

Wally, you seem to forget the concept that it is rate of production that
is important to the world's economy, it isn't quantity of hydrocarbons
out there. There are lots and lots of hydrocarbons out there. Getting
them out of the ground at the rate you burn them in your car and in your
home is the issue.

> -----Original Message-----
> From: asa-owner@lists.calvin.edu
> [mailto:asa-owner@lists.calvin.edu] On Behalf Of wallyshoes
> Sent: Saturday, June 26, 2004 10:48 PM
> To: ASA
> Subject: salvation from tar pits?
>
>
> This week's issue of wired had an interesting article on
> companies getting oil from tar pits. Available on-line at
>
> http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/12.07/oil.html?pg=1&topic=o
il&topic_set=

Evidently, some are investing effort to recover oil from this source.
Any comments from Glenn?

===================================
Walt Hicks <wallyshoes@mindspring.com>

In any consistent theory, there must
exist true but not provable statements.
(Godel's Theorem)

You can only find the truth with logic
If you have already found the truth
without it. (G.K. Chesterton) ===================================
Received on Sun Jun 27 09:25:16 2004