Oil Sands Increasingly Attractive Alternative in Light of Gulf Disaster
Since the beginning of BP’s crisis in the Gulf of Mexico, US energy sector regulators have been floating increasingly harsh language about offshore drilling leading to increased interest and investment into oil sands (sometimes called tar sands) as an alternative source, especially Canada’s oil sands, where plans are underway to both remediate environmental impacts of the industry as a whole and significantly boost production. A recent independent study confirms this trend, projecting 2.1M barrels per day (BPD) output by 2012 for Alberta oil sands (a 40% increase from 2009 figures), and as much as 3M BPD by 2020, effectively twice…