Just how much is the oil price drop hurting oil sands projects? – Macleans
Despite the plunge in prices, the oil sands are a lot better off than you might think
Over the past few weeks the price of crude has dropped significantly, and with it we’ve seen significant discussion of the continued viability of oil sands projects. Much of this discussion was centred around the Keystone XL pipeline debate over the past week, and was informed by analysis in the State Department’s final environmental impact assessment (PDF) for the pipeline. In particular, the State Department report speculated that, at West Texas Intermediate oil prices between $65 and $75 per barrel, the savings in transportation costs implied by pipelines versus rail could be material in terms of future oil sands growth.
