Canada BS Thread

Processed logs are generally lumber , which still is the main way that forestry products leave BC . Raw logs are processed in other countries into lumber , so exporting raw logs exports BC sawmill jobs and has only ballooned since the early 2000's because the BC Liberals dropped the requirement for timber companies harvesting a TFL to have to make available a certain portion of the harvest to local sawmills , now they just cut down the trees , which on Crown Land are owned by the BC taxpayer , and export the raw log making profits for the loghing company with no additional value added jobs for the sawmills

 

The last time I was in Alberta a happily drunk local heard the engine of my Ford Prove sounding like it was about to give..... As I coasted through a red light (dead cylinder vehicle died upon a full stop) all I heard was this man yelling 'Hey Bro!! You're never going to make it to Ontario'..... Ahhhh the west side!

(Yes, I did in fact make it back)

 

My original point was to add refining capacity .

So what you guys are saying is the Canadian oil economy will never be able to move beyond shipping raw bitumen ?

 

Ah, so either way there is a demand for the product. If that's the case my opinion would say why the heck aren't we processing it here?

With oil it's different. Almost everything shipped overseas is, at best, relatively unprocessed because that's what the market demands.

 

4 year old post yo

 

Not unless the global market starts buying gasoline. Right now, it only wants to buy the raw product. Now if there was the ability to generate some momentum among oil producers to ship more processed product the argument would be different, but I'm fairly sure that would violate a lot of fair trade treaties we have signed.

 

pretty much, unless buyers of bitumen decide to shut down their refineries so that Canada can refine it for them.

 

What about just refining the bitumen into oil . The main hurdle to adding pipelines to the coast isn't so much the part of the pipeline that is over the ground as the tanker end of things and as of now there is no strategy to clean up a raw bitumen ocean spill .

Having said that , there is really no capacity to clean up a sizeable ocean oil spill here either , so I think it is unfair of pro pipeline folks in Alberta to give BC residents a hard time for not wanting pipelines at this point . If the feds want to make them happen they have to at least spend some money alleviating the lack of spill response on the coast

 

Fair enough.

I'd even have no problem with some sort of cost sharing agreement into a Federal Cleanup Branch of some sort ready 24/7.

As for the bitumen I used to understand all the different levels of refinement but I'm not sure anymore. I think the stuff that's piped is heavy crude technically. Not sweet crude but not bitumen either. It's still contaminated with some crap though which is what I think you are getting at.

 

It's bitumen diluted with chemicals

ie Dilbit

 

Yup, I just looked it up. IIRC to make it crude you have to add lighter oil too, which has to come from the USA. That could mean another light oil pipeline just to have a crude oil pipeline. I think that's why Keystone XL is so lucrative. I think they want to pipe the bitumen to ND to mix it with some super light crude from there and make sweet crude using two cheap sources... and then pipe it to the gulf to be refined into anything you could need.

 

So back to my point , there is currently no way to recover dilbit from an ocean spill

 

In other news I could use some global warming right now. I'm hoping in and out of my truck doing soil samples today and it's -5 c with a 30 kph wind from the North. The snow isn't helping either! Everything is wet and muddy.

 

"About 50% of Alberta's bitumen is upgraded into synthetic crude oil before being to shipped to downstream refineries."

http://www.oilsandsmagazine.com/heavy-oil-upgraders-projects/

 

That's what I thought. However, I didn't know what they planned on shipping.

 

and 50% is not .

A lot of the environmental concerns about the Northern Gateway project were with the fact that the product shipped to Kitimat would be Dilbit

"About 50% of Alberta's bitumen is diluted and sold directly to heavy oil or high-conversion refineries. These refineries can accept heavy oil streams with up to 10% asphaltenes, as long as the solids and water content is kept low.

~snip~

This bitumen must meet strict pipeline specifications for water and solids content (less than 0.5%) and must contain enough diluent to meet minimum viscosity specifications. This minimizes risks of pipeline corrosion/erosion and ensures adequate flow properties, even at lower temperatures."

http://www.oilsandsmagazine.com/oil-sands-diluted-bitumen-dilbit-product-streams-wcs/

 

Exactly, not just capacity, but condition. In Alberta we don't have shortages because there aren't enough refineries. Most of the refineries here are using 40 year old facilities that have hiccups every now and then that can cause supply issues.

 

Got our first frost this morning

 

We had 3" of snow yesterday...

 

Lol , I thought the $150 we paid to get the Mainland and back was bad

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/bc-ferries-jumper-cost-40000-1.3312626