First, I want to look at how the changes not just in oil prices, but also changes in diluent costs, discounts for
oil sands crude relative to light crude and, in particular, the fall of the Canadian dollar have changed the outlook for new oil sands projects — for those under construction, and for those currently operating.
Not exact matches
While all this sounds reassuring, the State Department also writes elsewhere in the report that «a focused, peer - reviewed study of the potential corrosivity / erosivity of
oil -
sands derived
crude oils
relative to other
crude oils has not yet been conducted.»
«The CO2 numbers [in the
oil sands] sound frightening when only the production and refining are taken into account... Yet once the
oil is burned, a variety of sources say the total lifecycle impact of
oil sands relative to the average
crude used in the U.S. is much smaller, including the Council on Foreign Relations (17 percent higher emissions) and Cambridge Energy Research Associates (5 - 15 percent).»
The State Department estimates that
oil sands oil has 17 % greater well - to - wheel CO2 emissions than average US
crude, which corresponds to approximately 200 additional pounds of CO2 emissions per barrel
relative to average US
crude.