IAEE Members and subscribers to The Energy Journal: Please log in to access the full text article or receive discounted pricing for this article.

A Resource Whose Time Has Come? The Alberta oil Sands as an Economic Resource

Abstract:
The Alberta oil sands, which comprise over 170 billion barrels of proven recoverable reserves, are a resource of an order of magnitude similar to many estimates of ultimate world conventional oil reserves. Campbell Watkins maintained a long-standing emphasis on the essential economic component of any meaningful definition of the worldÕs natural resources. The fact is that the Alberta oil sands have had a very shaky economic foundation until only recently. The intention of this paper is to examine this emerging resource from an economic perspective; one, it is hoped, similar to that which Watkins evinced, in order to fully assess the extent to which the Alberta oil sands may be regarded as being no different in any meaningful way from other oil resources.

Purchase ( $25 )

Energy Specializations: Petroleum – Markets and Prices for Crude Oil and Products; Energy Investment and Finance – Public and Private Risks, Risk Management; Unconventional Fossil Resources –Synfuels; Unconventional Fossil Resources – Oil and Liquids; Unconventional Fossil Resources – Policy and Regulation

JEL Codes: Q35: Hydrocarbon Resources, Q41: Energy: Demand and Supply; Prices, Q40: Energy: General, Q31: Nonrenewable Resources and Conservation: Demand and Supply; Prices, Q21: Renewable Resources and Conservation: Demand and Supply; Prices, L71: Mining, Extraction, and Refining: Hydrocarbon Fuels, Q20: Renewable Resources and Conservation: General

Keywords: Oil sands, Alberta, Unconventional oil, Oil Investment

DOI: 10.5547/ISSN0195-6574-EJ-Vol29-NoSI-6

Published in Volume 29, Special Issue of the bi-monthly journal of the IAEE's Energy Economics Education Foundation.

 

© 2023 International Association for Energy Economics | Privacy Policy | Return Policy