The jobs growth required by the cities of Fort McMurray and Edmonton are significant in order to reach the projected production targets and to satisfy the requirements of the pending oil sands projects.
This is a sample put forward by the Canadian National Energy Board to illustrate the demand that Alberta must face.
The problem is compounded by the fact that Fort McMurray is in a remote cold location and $100 oil has created a lot of jobs for skilled labour in the oil field services industry.
This is the town of Fort McMurray that is located in the remote North Central Alberta. A decade ago the population was reaching 35,000.
The map shows the 1 lane (both directions) highway 63 that was built to service the town from Edmonton.
The highway sees an increasingly high volume of traffic due to the booming oilsands industry in Wood Buffalo, causing potentially serious transportation-related problems. Not surprisingly, many residents in Fort McMurray and others who frequently use the highway view this as an issue that needs to be dealt with in a timely manner. Trucks carrying large equipment can delay the traffic greatly, since they can be large enough to occupy two traffic lanes. Most of Highway 63 is two-lane undivided highway, with the exception of just a few kilometres south of and through Fort McMurray to roughly 25 km (15 miles) north of Fort McMurray. It is also the only all-weather road leading out of Fort McMurray, which makes it a critical link.
The increased requirements for electricity to support the increased oil sands production will also produce an abundance of excess electricity.
Energy Alberta Corporation calculated that Alberta would become a net importer of natural gas (5 bcf per day) if the proposed oil sands projects become a reality. The demand for natural gas for oil sands production is expected to increase by 300% by 2015. Oil sands production is forecasted to increase 4 fold by 2015 according to the Canadian National Energy Board.
Most of the crude bitumen that is produced will be upgraded to synthetic crude oil. The SCO would be sold to downstream refineries.
This is a summary, provided by the Canadian Energy Research Institute, of supply cost results for crude bitumen from Athabasca and Cold Lake. This bitumen has not been upgraded but can still be valued in the market as shown here.
osed projects will be for projects related to open pit mining. This is surprising since the majority of the crude oil is projected to come from In Situ production methods (SAGD). In situ production is regarded as being more energy intensive due to the large amount of steam that needs to be produced inorder to extract the bitumen from the oil sands. However, the open pit mining requires more heavy machinery and labour.
Recent projections of natural gas supply indicate that total production from the WCSB is expected to
provides an estimate of energy costs for all facets of the value added chain with natural gas consumptions.
High natural gas prices have encouraged oil sands operators to use gas more efficiently and to look for alternative fuels. The extent to which bitumen gasification or other alternatives to natural gas use prove successful and are adopted in additional operations will materially affect the purchased gas requirement in the oil sands.
Electricity costs are expensive due to the remoteness of the oil sands. Most companies have developed their own cogeneration plants to supply electricity to their projects.
Due to the relatively weak demand for electricity by population of Alberta, oil sand development companies are unable to develop substantial amounts of surplus, because there is no where to put it on the grid.
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