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TitleSupplying synthetic crude oil from Canadian oil sands: A comparative study of the costs and CO2 emissions of mining and in-situ recovery
Publication TypeJournal Article
Year of Publication2013
AuthorsMejean, A., & Hope C.
Volume60
Pagination13 pages
Date Published06/2010
PublisherEnergy Policy
Publication Languageeng
KeywordsCCS, CO2, economics, GHG, model, modeling
Abstract

High crude oil prices and the eventual decline of conventional oil production raise the issue of alternative fuels such as non-conventional oil. The paper describes a simple probabilistic model of the costs of synthetic crude oil produced from Canadian oil sands. Synthetic crude oil is obtained by upgrading bitumen that is first produced through mining or in-situ recovery techniques. This forward-looking analysis quantifies the effects of learning and production constraints on the costs of supplying synthetic crude oil. The sensitivity analysis shows that before 2035, the most influential parameters are the learning parameter in the case of in-situ bitumen and the depletion parameter in the case of mined bitumen. After 2035, depletion dominates in both cases. The results show that the social cost of CO2 has a large impact on the total costs of synthetic crude oil, in particular in the case of synthetic crude oil from in-situ bitumen, due to the carbon intensity of the recovery techniques: taking into account the social cost of CO2 adds more than half to the cost of producing synthetic crude oil from mined bitumen in 2050 (mean value), while the cost of producing synthetic crude oil from in-situ bitumen more than doubles.

URLhttp://www.econ.cam.ac.uk/dae/repec/cam/pdf/cwpe1014.pdf
Locational Keywords

Athabasca Oil Sands Region (AOSR)

Active Link

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/648769690

Group

OSEMB

Citation Key53785

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