[SGVLUG] [OT]Hybrids and trains (was fuel prices and the dollar)

[Christopher Smith]

And to clarify: the 179 billion barrels of reserves at the beginning of 
that description does NOT include the Athabasca oil sands, and already 
places Canada as #2. The Athabasca reserves effectively *double* that 
number, putting Canada at #1, well beyond Saudi Arabia's most optimistic 
reserve estimates. Again, that's before even exploiting the Arctic.

Lots of down sides to going after all that of course (although they've 
apparently recently come up with a way to process bitumen that 
significantly reduces waste byproduct).

--Chris

Dan Borne wrote:
> But those are including the oil sands; more BTUs worth of natural gas 
> are used to extract the petroleum than the BTU value of the petrol 
> itself.
>
> 2008/5/14 Christopher Smith <cbsmith at gmail.com 
> <mailto:cbsmith at gmail.com>>:
>
>     Sadly, like most things about oil, we tend to be fairly misinformed.
>
>     http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oil_reserves#Canada
>
>     Actually, Canada is #2 now that oil prices are so high, and that's
>     NOT including suspected massive reserves in the Arctic.
>     Furthermore, there is a fair bit of evidence that most OPEC
>     nations overstate their reserves in order to have a larger share
>     of quotas, so it is possible Canada is already #1 in terms of
>     "real" reserves.
>
>     --Chris
>
>
>     Dan Borne wrote:
>>     Canada does not have as large petrol or gas reserves as the US,
>>     Russia, Saudia Arabia and some others.
>>
>>     Sorry, I do not understand your connexion.
>>
>>     2008/5/14 Christopher Smith <x at xman.org <mailto:x at xman.org>>:
>>
>>         Yeah, just like it was during our last energy crisis. :-)
>>
>>         As the price of petrochemicals goes up, so do the options for
>>         oil and gas producers. If the prices get much higher, Canada
>>         may become the richest source of oil reserves in the world
>>         within a few years. Not to mention that wind power starts to
>>         become a really nice alternative to coal/gas/oil, reducing
>>         our need to consume it for power generation.
>>
>>         --Chris
>>