For those interested in the wider background of the historical record of resource overreach and depletion, ASPO Canada is posting herewith two essays. ASPO Canada chairman Ed Schreyer traces the historical pattern of resource use, intermittent overuse and abuse that destroyed the sustainability of entire regions throughout antiquity and during the past 500 years of post Medieval Europe. Now as globalism is replacing regional structures, the prospect of resource overuse and depletion is shifting from a local or regional inconvenience requiring moving a few miles (or a few thousand miles across a sea or continent) to a future where since the problem is global, there is no further place to move to. Then, too, there is now the problem of environmental impact on a worldwide scale. So the challenge now is to act in time to give new technology of renewable energy and new attitudes of conservation—a chance to make the changes before it is too late.

The Politics Of Energy and the Environment (PDF)

Energy Resource Use and Misuse in North America (PDF)

J. David Hughes of the Canadian Gas Potential Committee has provided one of his latest presentation’s “The Energy Sustainability Dilemma: Powering the Future in a Finite World” made in Ottawa on January 25, 2007. This presentation updates some of his earlier presentations posted on this site with data from the BP Statistical Review of World Energy 2007, the EIA’s International Energy Outlook 2007, the EIA’s Annual Energy Outlook 2008, the National Energy Board’s Energy Future Scenarios for Canada published in November 2007, and other information.

The Energy Sustainability Dilemma: Powering the Future in a Finite World (PDF)

Nova Scotia is in the midst of "renewing" its 2001 energy strategy. The Energy Research Group at Dalhousie University has issued a report on Nova Scotia's existing and proposed energy strategy and alternatives to the proposed strategy. Copies of the report can be obtained from:

http://lh.ece.dal.ca/enen/2007/ERG200707.pdf

For copies of our other energy-related research, please visit:

http://lh.ece.dal.ca/enen

If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to contact me.

Larry Hughes, PhD
Professor
Energy Research Group
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Dalhousie University
Halifax, Nova Scotia, B3J 2X4
Canada

v: 902.494.3950
f: 902.422.7535
e: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
u: http://lh.ece.dal.ca

On November 22nd, 2007, The Right Honorable Edward Schreyer made a presentation at the Globe theatre in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

The presentation was entitled: Historical Energy & Future Options. Included here is the powerpoint presentation in .pdf format for your consideration. It includes at first, a series of pie charts created by Mr. Schreyer, followed by the presentation created by David Hughes, Unconventional Oil, first shown in Boston on October 26th, 2006.

Historical Energy & Future Options (PDF)

Reprinted from the EIA website

Oil

Canada is consistently one of the top three suppliers of oil imports to the United States.

Overview

According to Oil and Gas Journal (OGJ), Canada had a reported 179.2 billion barrels of proven oil reserves as of January 2007, second only to Saudi Arabia. The bulk of these reserves (over 95%) are oil sands deposits in Alberta, which are much more difficult to extract and process than conventional crude oil.

Canada’s total oil production (including all liquids) was 3.3 million bbl/d in 2006. The country's oil production has steadily increased as new oil sands and offshore projects have come on-stream to replace aging fields in the western provinces: from 1996-2006, Canada’s oil sands production has increased from 445,000 bbl/d to 1.2 million bbl/d. Overall, EIA predicts that oil sands production will increase even further in coming years and more than offset the decline in Canada’s conventional crude oil production. Canada consumed an estimated 2.2 million bbl/d of oil in 2006. The country sends over 99 percent of its oil exports to the U.S., and it is consistently one of the top three sources of U.S. oil imports.