Nice ones George!
MY WORLD
- Thread starter fubar57
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T Bolt
Colonel
Cool George!
vikingBerserker
Lieutenant General
- Thread starter
- #444
fubar57
General
Thanks guys. Rumour has it that we are getting a 24 model grader, the biggest Cat makes....
.....if so, this will make my life on the dam waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay easier. Right now we have a 14 and three 16s, the numbers equate to blade width in feet though the 14 actually has a 16' blade
.....if so, this will make my life on the dam waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay easier. Right now we have a 14 and three 16s, the numbers equate to blade width in feet though the 14 actually has a 16' blade
Airframes
Benevolens Magister
Now that's a mean machine !
Sometimes size does matter 
!
!- Thread starter
- #448
fubar57
General
Not sure if I want to operate it though as it looks longer than some of our road widths. The beast is almost 53 feet/16.1 meters long. I have visions of that scene in the Austin Powers movie where he's trying to turn that cart around in the hallway
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Old Wizard
2nd Lieutenant
ontos
Tech Sergeant
Great shots George.
Thorlifter
Captain
Geo, are you working at one of the oil sands projects in Canada? I was reading about how most of those projects are shutting down due to low oil prices and the (STUPID) fracking in the states. Hope your job is safe!
Crimea_River
Marshal
Geo's working at a mineral mine Thor but I was, until now, working for a large engineering and construction company whose business is largely tied to the oil sands in Alberta. I'll try to answer as accurately and concisely as possible, though the following explanation will be a simplistic view of a complex area.
The oil sands are the world's 3rd largest oil reserve. The oil is actually mostly bitumen that is caught in sand so much if it is actually open pit mined, though SAGD (Steam Assisted Gravity Drainage) facilites are also operating and becoming more preferred. These entail drilling a series of vertical and horizontal shafts and injecting steam which allows the bitumen to flow and get pulled to the surface without tearing up the landscape. The current production capacity, spread amongst several major production facilities, is about 2.5 Million Barrels/Day with more coming on stream over the next year or so.
Alberta exports most of its product, called diluted bitumen or "dilbit", and refines a fraction of the production locally. The extraction process is relatively expensive, and so is fracking in the US. Both production methods suffer economically in a low oil price environment as we currently have. What makes things worse for Alberta is that we are land locked with limited pipeline capacity so any product we sell as feedstock to, say, refineries in the gulf coast region of the US needs to be discounted to make the product price competitive.
Alberta has not shut in any production at any of the existing facilities so we are continuing to mine and extract product. However many planned expansion projects have been delayed with the major producers electing to not invest capital in developing new leases until the price environment improves. The money that they are spending is on sustaining capital works for their existing facilities, essentially maintenance to keep them going.
I'm not sure why you have characterized the US fracking as "stupid" but the introduction of this method to squeeze more oil has allowed the US to become less dependant on foreign crude and, ironically, contributed to the current oil glut that has depressed prices to a point that is possibly below what can sustain economic production should these low prices continue. True that the method is not without controversy, with concerns over its chemical use potentially contaminating ground water and, more recently, links being made with increased earthquake activity.
So, in summary, we are not "shutting down" current production but new projects are being deferred.
The oil sands are the world's 3rd largest oil reserve. The oil is actually mostly bitumen that is caught in sand so much if it is actually open pit mined, though SAGD (Steam Assisted Gravity Drainage) facilites are also operating and becoming more preferred. These entail drilling a series of vertical and horizontal shafts and injecting steam which allows the bitumen to flow and get pulled to the surface without tearing up the landscape. The current production capacity, spread amongst several major production facilities, is about 2.5 Million Barrels/Day with more coming on stream over the next year or so.
Alberta exports most of its product, called diluted bitumen or "dilbit", and refines a fraction of the production locally. The extraction process is relatively expensive, and so is fracking in the US. Both production methods suffer economically in a low oil price environment as we currently have. What makes things worse for Alberta is that we are land locked with limited pipeline capacity so any product we sell as feedstock to, say, refineries in the gulf coast region of the US needs to be discounted to make the product price competitive.
Alberta has not shut in any production at any of the existing facilities so we are continuing to mine and extract product. However many planned expansion projects have been delayed with the major producers electing to not invest capital in developing new leases until the price environment improves. The money that they are spending is on sustaining capital works for their existing facilities, essentially maintenance to keep them going.
I'm not sure why you have characterized the US fracking as "stupid" but the introduction of this method to squeeze more oil has allowed the US to become less dependant on foreign crude and, ironically, contributed to the current oil glut that has depressed prices to a point that is possibly below what can sustain economic production should these low prices continue. True that the method is not without controversy, with concerns over its chemical use potentially contaminating ground water and, more recently, links being made with increased earthquake activity.
So, in summary, we are not "shutting down" current production but new projects are being deferred.
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- Thread starter
- #454
fubar57
General
Thanks Andy, the reply is far better than I could have ever given and agree 100%
Crimea_River
Marshal
You're welcome Geo. A bit of MY world in that post so hopefully it doesn't go OT.
Thorlifter
Captain
Thanks for the information. I used to work at an FMI copper mine in Arizona so I'm quite fond of the mining environment. I tried to get involved with the Fort McMurrey project but there were no positions available at that time. Wish I could get back to Arizona some day. I said it was stupid strictly because of the reasons you stated. Potential contamination of ground water and the huge increase in earthquakes over the past couple years, especially where I live outside of Dallas.
Here are a couple of the articles I was basing my information on
Norwegian giant pulls out of Alberta's oilsands
Canada's Costly Oilsands Loses Another Player as Norwegian Oil Giant Statoil Pulls Out
Here are a couple of the articles I was basing my information on
Norwegian giant pulls out of Alberta's oilsands
Canada's Costly Oilsands Loses Another Player as Norwegian Oil Giant Statoil Pulls Out
It seems stupid to say it now after the above, but as a kid my favorite Tonka truck was the grader...
Awesome "Ride' George...
T Bolt
Colonel
Crimea_River
Marshal
Statoil was never a major player in the oil sands and jumped on the band wagon to develop leases when prices were high.
"Desmog UK". The name says it all.
"Desmog UK". The name says it all.
