Tar sands case study revision notes

• Tar sands are located in many countries but the largest reserves are in Canada and in Venezuela
• Between 2000 and 2005 oil prices and demand continued to rise, the oil industry spent more than $86 billion on difficult to exploit frontier hydrocarbons (like tar sands) 
• Exxon Mobil, Shell and BP interested 
• By 2030, they plan to produce 5 million barrels a day 

Costs of exploitation: 

• Expensive; costs $15 a barrel to extract bitumen from tar sands compared…