Alberta's Oil Sands

We will most likely be hearing a lot more about Canadian oil sands in the coming years. Alberta has dirt saturated with oil, known as oil sands and they have a lot of them. It is estimated that the oil deposits in Canada rival those of the Middle East. A modern day oil rush has started to take place and an estimated $50 - $100 billion will be spent over the next decade to increase production capacity. The process to extract the oil from the sand is a lengthy one, but with oil prices at current levels, it becomes feasible and profitable.  It takes approximately two tons of sand to yield just one barrel of oil and yet Alberta is now producing close to a million barrels a day with a target to reach three million in 2020.

Many people would say this is a slam dunk, but many implications of Canada's "Trillion-barrel tar pit" have yet to be played out. Will this be the catalyst to reduce America's dependence on Middle Eastern oil? Will the environmental impacts be sustainable? A recent film entitled "PAY DIRT ALBERTA'S OIL SANDS - CENTURIES IN THE MAKING" narrated by Arthur Kent, takes a deeper at look at the resource the Canadian government has claimed is second only to Saudi Arabia's oil reserves.

According to noted international trade authority William Dabaghi, "the oil sands in Alberta are a geopolitical play at the highest level--there you find both security and abundance which do not exist together in most parts of the world."

Canadian energy trusts such as Provident, Petrofund and Enerplus Resources have already caught the attention of Forbes magazine and Wall Street, and a recent story on CBS News shows that the oil sands are starting to grab the attention of everyday Americans.