| Do you wonder where your next tank of gas | | | | But here in northeastern Alberta, it's frankly |
| may come from after the Middle East dries up, or | | | | ridiculous. The mines operate fleets of the world's |
| the sheiks turn off the taps? How about twenty, | | | | biggest truck. It's three stories high and costs $5 |
| thirty years from now, will your kids still be able | | | | million. It carries a load of 400 tons of oil sands, |
| to fill up the family jalopy?Well, maybe you | | | | which means, at today's oil prices, each load is |
| shouldn't worry so much about the supply of | | | | worth $10,000 dollars.What it's like to drive one of |
| petroleum products. There's an oil boom going on | | | | these monsters? One driver described it this |
| right now. Not in Saudi Arabia or Kuwait or any of | | | | way."You have 14 steps going up to the cab and |
| those places, but 600 miles north of Montana.In a | | | | at my house you have 14 steps to the bedroom. |
| city called Fort McMurray where, in the dead of | | | | So it's like going upstairs in my house, sitting on |
| winter, the temperature sometimes zooms up to | | | | my bed and driving the house downtown", he |
| zero and just as often dips down to a minus 50 | | | | said.The monster trucks haul the oil sands to a |
| degrees F, you'll find the oil sands. The oilmen up | | | | plant. They're heated in a cell, which separates the |
| there aren't digging holes in the sand and hoping | | | | oil from the sand. The result looks like molten |
| for a spout. They're digging up dirt - dirt that is | | | | chocolate. This flow is then sent to an upgrader |
| saturated with oil. They're called oil sands and if | | | | and eventually to a refinery. The oil is as good as |
| you've never heard of them then you're in for a | | | | that pumped in Saudi Arabia, in fact, it even |
| big surprise because the reserves are so vast in | | | | trades at a premium because it's such high quality |
| the province of Alberta that they will help solve | | | | crude oil.The capital of the oil sands frenzy is a |
| America's energy needs for the next | | | | frontier town, now a city, called Fort McMurray, |
| century.Within a few years, the oil sands are likely | | | | which as one wag said, "It isn't in the middle of |
| to become more important to the United States | | | | nowhere. It's north of nowhere". But it's a |
| than all the oil that comes from Saudi Arabia. | | | | boomtown just the same. "I think it's bigger than |
| Twenty-four hours a day, 365 days a year, | | | | a gold rush. We're expecting $100 billion over the |
| vehicles that look like prehistoric beasts move | | | | next 10 years to be invested in this area - $100 |
| across a sub-arctic wasteland, extracting the oil | | | | billion in a population that, currently, is 70,000 |
| sands. There is so much to scoop, so muc oil to | | | | people", says Brian Jean, who represents the |
| produce, so much money to be made.There are | | | | region in Canada's parliament.Most of the oil in the |
| 175 billion barrels of proven oil reserves here. | | | | sands on those lumbering trucks are on their way |
| That's second to Saudi Arabia's 260 billion but it's | | | | to the gas tanks of America. A million barrels a |
| only what companies can get with today's | | | | day are now coming out of the oil sands and oil |
| technology. The estimate of how many more | | | | production is expected to triple within a decade. It |
| barrels of oil are buried deeper underground is | | | | won't replace Middle Eastern oil but at that point it |
| staggering. The total estimates could be two | | | | will be the single largest source of foreign oil for |
| trillion or even higher. That's eight times the | | | | the United States, even bigger than Saudi Arabia, |
| amount of reserves in Saudi Arabia. The oil sands | | | | which sends a million and a half barrels a day to |
| are buried under forests in Alberta in the | | | | America.The oil companies want to step up |
| northeastern corner of the province, in an area | | | | production quickly. What's holding them back is |
| that is roughly the size of Florida. The oil here | | | | labor - the shortage of it. It's estimated that |
| doesn't come gushing out of the sand the way it | | | | another 100,000 people are needed in Fort |
| does in the Middle East. The oil is in the sand. It | | | | McMurray. That's why one oil company has built a |
| has to be dug up and processed.The oil sands | | | | runway to fly workers daily from civilization to |
| have been in the ground for millions of years, but | | | | Fort McMurray. But why would anyone want to |
| for decades, prospectors lost millions of dollars | | | | come work in a place where temperatures |
| trying to squeeze the oil out of the sand. It simply | | | | plummet to 40 below and the sun sets shortly |
| cost too much. T. Boone Pickens, a legendary | | | | after it rises in the long winter? Well, perhaps |
| Texas oil tycoon, was working Alberta's traditional | | | | because the oil companies pay some of the |
| oil rigs back in the '60s and remembers how he | | | | highest salaries in North America.But even if |
| and his colleagues thought mining for oil sands was | | | | workers come flocking, the oil companies still have |
| a joke."Here we are sitting there having a drink | | | | other problems. Creating energy from oil sands |
| after work and somebody said this isn't going to | | | | requires so much energy that the oil companies |
| work, it isn't possible. It'll all have to be subsidized | | | | wind up spiking greenhouse gas emissions. Other |
| before they'll make money. You'd have to have | | | | less energy intensive methods of extraction are |
| $5 oil", Pickens says laughing. "We never thought it | | | | continually being invented and developed to lessen |
| would happen".But then $40 a barrel happened | | | | the environmental impact.A hundred miles south |
| and now $60 a barrel has happened and the oil | | | | from Fort McMurray, you can still see oil being |
| sands not only make sense, they making billions | | | | produced the traditional way. It's picturesque now. |
| for the people digging them. But it wasn't just the | | | | The wells are still pumping but they belong to the |
| price of oil that changed the landscape, it was the | | | | past, like the iron horse that once rode across |
| toys. That's what they call the giant trucks and | | | | these prairies.The future? Up here in Northern |
| shovels that roam the mines.Everything about the | | | | Alberta they're convinced it's in the dirt, the oil |
| oil industry has always been big. It's characterized | | | | sands to be exact. |
| by bigness, from the pumps to the personalities. | | | | |