Text 12623, 86 rader
Skriven 2008-08-24 16:44:00 av JIM WELLER (1:123/140)
     Kommentar till en text av GLEN JAMIESON
Ärende: Re: OT - OIL PRICES 80823
=================================
-=> Quoting Glen Jamieson to Jim Weller <=-

 GJ> So why isn't there frantic activity getting the oil sands production
 GJ> under way?
 
 JW> There is! Billions are being spent and Fort McMurray is like a black
 JW> hole sucking up all the construction materials and manpower from the
 JW> rest of western Canada. It even affects construction up here.

 GJ> So that facility should be going into production soon.

It has been in production for some time; but it is expanding like
crazy.

The Cree First Nations people knew about the oil sands for centuries
and used tar to waterproof their canoes.

In 1790 fur trader and explorer Alexander MacKenzie made the first
recorded description of the oil sands but he was more interested in
furs than oil and didn't do anything to exploit it.

In 1921 Alcan Oil Company started to refine the heavy oil there
experimentally with hot water extraction on a small scale and the
population grew to a few hundred. Fort McMurray got a railway as a
result and Yellowknife was more accessible from there by water than
it had been before with a trail that started in northwestern
Alberta.

In 1967, the Great Canadian Oil Sands (now Suncor) plant opened a
huge plant. That was also the year I graduated from high school and
a lot of my classmates went there for the high paying jobs. The
population went from 500 in 1966 to 35000 in 1986.

More oil sands plants opened up in 1973 and 1979 when conflict in
the Middle East triggered oil price spikes. Things slowed down
after the oil price collapse in 1986 as oil extraction from the
oilsands is a very expensive process. A lot of my old friends got
laid off and came home but had saved enough to buy farms for cash.

It of course took off again recently and the population doubled in 6
years from 35000 to 70000 with several thousand more temporary
workers living in camps two weeks at a time and going home for two
weeks. About a fifth of these workers live in Newfoundland, the
poorest province in Canada (especially after the collapse of the cod
stocks) over 6800 km away. The population will probably hit 100,000
in four more years.

 GJ> Have you got Mounties
 GJ> sitting there on their horses, ready to defend your oil sands from
 GJ> invaders from the South?
 
 GJ> What North?  Oh, yes, I remember the Russky submarine

And Bush's sinister comments.

 GJ> Only Toyota is continuing to make a profit.  (Maybe because
 GJ> they make better cars.)
 
Better, and smaller.

 JW> sell SUVs to the Americans anymore) and forestry based British
 JW> Columbia (they can't sell lumber to the Americans anymore) but

 GJ> Presumably because no one is building houses there any more.
          
That's it.

 GJ> So in the future, as Canukstan will have more oil than anyone else

We're #2. Saudi Arabia is still #1.

 GJ> and Australia has more uranium than anyone, we should be able to do a
 GJ> deal, and between us, control the world!

Quiet! You want to get us both invaded?



Cheers

YK Jim


___ Blue Wave/QWK v2.20 [NR]
--- Platinum Xpress/Win/WINServer v3.0pr5
 * Origin: Doc's Place BBS Fido Since 1991 docsplace.tzo.com (1:123/140)