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Local: The more the merrier
Commentary by Jeff Burgar
for South Peace News
Remember the brand new “Cellulose City?’’
And “Jewel of the North’’ which mostly means Lesser Slave Lake? “Heart of the Woodland Paradise’’ which started back with the Golden Walleye Classic almost 20 years ago?
And of course, the 50-60-year-old “Gateway to the Peace Country?’’
High Prairie’s economic development officer, Brian Holmberg, brought a new one to the table last week - “Gateway to the Peace Oilsands.’’
The “Gateway,’’ for those who still think High Prairie is mostly farmers with a few shopkeepers, is actually that - the southern entrance to the Peace Arch oilsands.
The Peace oilsands is part of the same oil bearing lands that stretches from west of Peace River all the way eastward to Fort McMurray and into Saskatchewan. The reason Fort McMurray has grown exponentially over the past 20 years is because the oil bearing sands are very close to the surface. This makes mining them using draglines and big trucks a fairly straightforward job.
As one traces the oilsands westward, the formations go deeper. The next big pocket is the Wabasca sands where Shell Oil is planning a new oilsands plant. Continuing west, we reach the Peace oilsands area, the huge area which includes north of High Prairie and Lesser Slave Lake. This area includes Seal. Again, Shell Oil has run the experimental “in situ’’ plant north and east of Peace River for many years.
Today, the stars of good fortune are coming into alignment for these deeper oilsands pools. The cost of upgrading heavy oil to conventional oil continues to fall. In turn, this has improved the price upgraders and refiners will pay for heavy oil, which usually does not follow lockstep with market benchmarks like West Texas Intermediate. In turn, this makes deep sands project investment worthy.
Open strip mining operations like Fort McMurray continue to attract unfavourable attention from environmentalists. Tailing ponds and carbon footprints of Fort McMurray’s operations actually have some Americans continue to press for bans of oilsands oil. The deep sands projects don’t have the same baggage.
New recovery techniques continue to be tried for deep sands projects. Many work, are practical and can make money.
High Prairie has called itself “Gateway to the Peace Country’’ for many years. That it doesn’t capture hearts and minds, and doesn’t sell High Prairie in today’s world is obvious. It makes as much sense as Grande Prairie’s “Swan City.’’
So, here’s a new one for locals to consider. “Gateway to the Peace Oilsands.’’ Are there more?
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