While it has long been a huge revenue generator for Alberta, Saskatchewan's oil sands have yet to see any real development. Part of the reason is because the deposits in Saskatchewan are too deep to extract through open pit mining. That is keeping interest from companies like Syncrude pointed in Alberta.

"Our resource base would last 100 years," Syncrude Chairman Marcel Coutu said after addressing the Regina Chamber of Commerce at a luncheon on Tuesday. "We don't really have any near or medium term needs to pursue other lands."

Coutu is in Regina on a speaking tour trying to clean up the oil sands image.

"It's not to say that we're perfect, there are always trade offs. There are no industries out there that don't consume energy, and therefore consume CO2, we just happen to be a fairly large industry."

An unconvincing argument to those pushing for more renewable sources of energy.

"Currently in Saskatchewan we are getting a lot of acid rain and destruction of our eco systems up north," Renewable Energy Consultant Billy Patterson told Global News. "A by-product of oil sands development."

There is no timeline for when Saskatchewan's oil sands will be developed, however two other companies are currently exploring the feasibility.

 

Source: www.globaltvbc.com