I seem to remember something about this from many years ago...
I recall that we knew it was there, we just had to figure out how to extract it at a cost that allowed a profit.
Well, maybe someone just fudged the numbers a bit in order to get the project going.
Yes, if prices stay high, it's economically viable(although a huge detriment to the environment)...but right now they aren't.
OPEC can afford to keep production up, thus lowering the price for quite a while.
I read somewhere in those links about transportation costs being a key factor.
I wonder if that has anything to do with the TV ads promoting the pipeline project I've been seeing lately?

On a side note....
Oil is bought and sold in US dollars, and a huge amount of that currency exists solely for that purpose.
If prices keep dropping, less US dollars are needed to buy and sell oil, this creating a surplus of American dollars...could we also see some economic issues due to this price drop?

Denob,

I would suspect that it does have to do with the TV ads promoting the pipeline project... and why so many activists are apposing it. They each have their own agenda...

As for your side note. I don't follow what you mean. Do you wonder if the US dollar will decline because of it? Sorry, I am not well versed in this topic but I am very interested in learning. 😳

when i worked in northern alberta a couple of years ago they only needed oil to be at 75 dollars a barrel to be profitable.
With technological advancements in extraction iam sure that profitability at pretty close to that price would maintain.

My father in law is an engineer for a large oil company in Alberta. His words were that they need about $40/barrel to be profitable. Of course these numbers will change with the different methods of extractions. I can't see SAGD projects having higher extraction costs per barrel vs open pit mining.

It's hard to put one number on such a large and diversified industry. Some oil doesn't need to be upgraded anymore. Oil companies are injecting nitrogen in to oil to skip some of the upgrading processes. This also has to be taken in to consideration.

I watched a Canadian documentary covering all this called "The Hole Story" which I found interesting. It's on Netflix for those who are interested. It shows the corporate greed required to make such things even practical on paper.

The thing that I always see folks seem to get wrong is how the Canadian native gets anything from staging protests and creating blockades against such expansion. No one pays them including their own reserve. They receive no compensation for jail time and such. Yet they continue to quietly and peacefully disrupt the workings of corporations and often win in the courtrooms too. But still these dedicated people are stereotyped as drunks and lazy by the majority of Canadians. Very few see them as the last warriors fighting for a cause that will mean something not too far a distance down this same road we are presently on...

Well said Knuckle! I come from an Ojibway family on my mother's side and I am not a drunk nor am I lazy! I'm also quite educated (and no the government didn't pay for that education either, I did).