Canada: World’s Second Largest Oil Reserves, Sudan
December 11th, 2005You read that correctly. Next to Saudi Arabia, Canada is now considered to be numero deux. Why? Advances in techniques that enable turning the tar sands of Alberta to oil is becoming more cost effective.
(status as number two in the world comes from the C.I.A.)
Why do I mention this? It’s an interesting topic on its own, but in consideration of the current American gov’t quest to follow the world’s natural resources and their resultant war cry — war might not be too far from home at some point. That would never really happen with Canada of course. It’s an unspoken rule in the modern colonialist movement: you never attempt to colonize another brother.
I wonder if Sudan would get the same attention from the Americans if they simply had something worthy of owning. The problems with Sudan are inherently ones that cannot change. They are in Africa. And they are black. And they have nothing of significant value.
They do have a good Christian versus Muslims in a cage match style fight going on, except it’s much more serious than that. Gov’t sponsored rape, torture and murder of thousands of otherwise innocent people deserves immediate attention from the world at large. But they can’t really get it on the same scale that four Americans being held hostage in Iraq get.
If Sally Struthers isn’t on the tele trying to round up funds based upon the price of a cup of coffee for her dying career, American’s generally don’t care about Africa.
They need something good to get the attention of the American government. Only then will the US determine that it’s time to begin our nation building exercise. 2,000,000 people dying in that country’s civil war that has been raging since independence from Britain apparenlty hasn’t been enough to warrant a cessation in ’round the clock poker tournaments on the tele.
Generally speaking, Africa fails to get the same global attention when it needs it for the same reasons that most Hurricane Katrina victims were black. The net result of this administration’s stand on both topics is nearly identical — “They’re use to it.” That roughly translates into something along the lines of “fuck ‘em.”
From the Rogue Investor:
If oil prices continue to remain high, there is an interesting investing opportunity that warms the heart of every geologist. Alberta, Canada is home to a geologic phenomenon that could prove very valuable. Long considered worthless, vast deposits of tar sands are located in Alberta. These tar sands contains enough oil to rival the Saudis (over 200 billion barrels), but until recently no one could economically extract the oil out of these sands, especially with oil selling for less than $20 per barrel. This is because you must mine tar sands, because the oil is too viscous to pump. When the world oil reserves are tallied, usually these tar sands are not even included in the estimates.
However, one company, Suncor (SU), has never given up on these deposits and it has gradually become the expert on how to profitably get oil out of these tar sands. Suncor can economically mine these tax sands for about $20 per barrel, so with oil at $40 to $50 per barrel, Suncor makes a lot of money. For an oil company, their market cap of about 15 billion dollars is small (Exxon has a market cap of over 300 billion dollars), but their tar sand oil reserves rank in the billions of barrels. Considering the vast nature of the tar sand deposits in Alberta, Suncor also has the option of leasing more tar sand acreage in the future. If oil prices stay where they are at now, this company is 50% to 75% undervalued.
December 11th, 2005 at 1:17 pm
but let’s not forget all that yummy Canadian bacon!
which of course is known as ham in Canada
December 11th, 2005 at 6:03 pm
To contend that Sudan in particular, and Sub-Saharan Africa in general, receive little attention from the United States Government is ill-conceived. In 2004, the US Government gave over $700 million in emergency food aid. Since January, 2003, the US Government spent $5.3 billion on decreasing the spread of AIDS in Africa.
More importantly, though, the nation-building you want the United States, and the world, to involve themselves with in Sudan would not work. Nation-building hasn’t worked since the end of the cold war. It failed in Haiti, Nicaragua, Peru and Angola. UN sponsored nation building failed so badly in the Balkans, Yugoslavia splintered into several countries and actually led to more human rights abuses. With the current outcry at US nation building in Iraq and Afghanistan, there is no doubt that the country can afford, both economically and politically, another attempt in another country. Such an endeavor would cost too many lives of American troops.
So, short of an all out invasion along the lines of Iraq, what more would you like the Administration to do?
December 11th, 2005 at 7:02 pm
I do have more to add to this later, but what the world is doing is obviously not enough.
http://www.usaid.gov/locations/sub-saharan_africa/sudan/darfur.html
http://www.theonion.com/content/node/34108