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Oil Sands Case Study

Decent Essays

Canada has the world’s third largest oil proved reserves, 96% of which are in the oil sands [1*]. In the recent years, oil sands has held a significant role in the Canadian economy and energy security due to pioneering movements and emerging technologies in this industry [2, 3]. However, the oil industry, with its history of booms and busts [4], is currently in its worst economic standing since 1990s. The recent drop in oil prices in the global market has directly affected the energy sectors and highly influenced different industries. Despite the increasing global oil demand [5], Canadian oil has been trading at a discounted value to compete with other conventional oil producers in the market [6, 7]. The position of oil sands in the energy market …show more content…

As a result, there is a need to thoroughly investigate the current and future feasibility of oil sands’ production and transportation not only in Canada but also around the world.
There is a high level of uncertainty and volatility involved in energy markets [11, 12], the interactions of which with energy price and emissions regulations are significant. To address these uncertainties and investigate their impacts on the role of oil sands, a global dynamic energy market is proposed. This model aims at studying the behavior of different energy sources (including oil sands) in competition with each other in the planning horizon. In this model, uncertain parameters (i.e., energy demand, regional prices, regulations, and innovations) are forecasted and inputted into the model and the behavior of oil sands industry (i.e., in terms of production level) in competition with alternative energy sources (i.e., conventional fossil fuels, renewables, etc.) is determined. To develop this model, several tools and techniques are applied, the combination of which has not been thoroughly considered in the literature.

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