[en] Canada's oil sands deposits were considered to offer huge potential for wealth generation and enduring social benefits. This report showed that putting in action the plan developed by the National Task Force on Oil Sands Strategies would help unlock this potential and realize the benefits; the forecast called for a doubling or tripling of oil sands production over the next 25 years. The plan should also predicted an increase in investments in oil sands since the fiscal regime would be stable and the product would be in increasing demand. New capital investment should generate significant environmental, social and economic benefits. The real outcome would be increased national prosperity, since further growth in investment would translate into thousands of skilled jobs across Canada, expansion of government revenues, and improvements to Canada's trade balance. 1 ill

[en] This report puts forward the recommendations of the industry members of the Task Force based on an extensive review of the literature on royalties and resource rent taxes, and consultation with officials of the Alberta Department of Energy and Natural Resources Canada prior to completing the analysis. The members also ensured that the recommended terms were fair and robust under a wide range of circumstances, including price volatility, changes in inflation rates, and differences or changes in project size and scope. It was also shown that the reform of the fiscal regime for the oil sands would not by itself result in more effective development of the resource; continued efforts on research and development are necessary to provide the tools for economic production. This reform would be expected to have a strong influence on investment behaviour, and consequently a large role in shaping and pacing development. 17 figs

[en] The bituminization process has been used for conditioning low and medium level (LML) radioactive waste, particularly to immobilize coprecipitation slurries and evaporation concentrates generated by effluent treatment. The process consists in mixing bitumen matrix with inactive soluble and slightly soluble salts added to insolubilize the radionuclides or resulting from the neutralization of acid effluents. This operation is performed at a sufficient temperature - depending on waste composition and bitumen grade to ensure the flow of the resulting mixture into metal containers. Exothermicity due to salts/salts or salts/bitumen reactions depending on the type of waste can be induced during or after the mixing step. This could produce an additional heat emission that the drum must be able to release to avoid a potentially incidental pattern with ignition risk, explaining why the CEA has been involved in evaluating the thermal reactivity of bituminized waste and its repercussions on the bituminization process. Given the difficulty of discriminating each exothermal reaction, the characterization of a global reactivity appears as a further precautionary measure, in addition to the definition of a working safety margin. The CEA has accordingly developed studies on this aspect. The article discusses the experimental methodology developed for the determination of the global reactivity. (authors)

[en] The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the Chinese situation as it relates to energy and environment policy. Given the dominance of coal as an energy source and the environmental consequences of its production and use, more attention will be devoted to this fuel than to others. As noted below, however, China has a distinctly modern sector superimposed on a traditional sector that depends on noncommercial or traditional fuels. The intriguing aspect of China's economy is that nationwide trends are all but impossible to detect because of the differences between the commercial and the traditional sectors. Averages are particularly meaningless when it comes to energy and environmental conditions in China

[en] The views of the International Chamber of Commerce on world energy planning are noted. The Chamber has suggested that governments should expedite and clarify environmental and safety regulations for nuclear energy and coal, both important and acceptable energy sources which offer abundant and economic means to reduce dependence on petroleum. Economic advantages and environmental hazards are considered

[en] The possible use of options pricing theory for evaluating long-term capital investments is discussed. Using the Black and Scholes option pricing model, five variables were evaluated for a hypothetical oil sands project. These variables are: stock price as determined by the earning power of the company; exercise price which equals the investment cost of the project; price standard deviation which is assumed to be 50%; the length of time for which the company will maintain its option to invest in the project, and finally the risk free rate which is approximately equal to the yield in long term government securities. A sensitivity analysis on these variables can provide management with information on how best to influence the option value. A more in-depth analysis could provide valuable information about strategic choice for large projects. 5 refs., 3 figs

[en] Our aim is to refine the current description of the leaching phenomenology with cross-linked characterizations of Bituminized Waste Products (BWP) in contact with water, at the early stages of the leaching as well as the longer ones. For that sake, three model BWP have been synthesised, varying the chemical content of salts and the grain size distribution. Water sorption, ¹H CPMG NMR techniques are the main techniques used for this study. They have been compared to the kinetics of water uptake in leaching experiments. These results put into evidence the effect of insoluble salts in the water uptake kinetics. This effect may be attributed to a percolation mechanism enhanced with the presence of small hydrophobic salts. This is really new but has to be deeper evaluated before updating long term predictive modeling of BWP leaching, since we have not at that time correlated this effect with the salts release kinetics

[en] Progress on the Lloydminster Heavy Oil Interpretive Centre, sponsored by the Lloydminster Oilfield Technical Society and expected to open in late 1998, was discussed. Some $150,000 of the $750,000 budget is already in the bank, and another $150,000 is in the pipeline. The Centre will be added to an existing and well-established visitor's site. It is reported to contain a lively and imaginatively-designed exhibit package, and promises to become a combination of educational tool and tourist attraction for the town of Lloydminster, Saskatchewan, in the heart of heavy oil country

[en] Experimental data obtained previously relating to the behaviour of single spherical particles of oil sands in hot uniform velocity oxidizing gaseous streams were employed and extended to estimate in a preliminary fashion the extent of mass transfer from oil sand fragments in a fluidized bed. This has been done through employing experimental correlations published in the literature on fluidization. A simple closed form analytical expression was derived for estimating the transient rates of mass transfer in fluidized beds of oil sands in terms of the main controlling parameters

[en] Undoubtedly coal is at present being offered in sufficient quantities and at low prices on the world market. Due to the increase in populations and growing industrialisation, World energy consumption and therefore coal consumption, will rise dramatically. World reserves, energy consumption and other economic data are clearly shown. (DG)