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Originally Posted by middeljohn
It's awesome how fast they're growing and this proposal is impressive. Taller than anything in London or Hamilton. I'm a bit concerned about what will happen to Fort Mac when the tar sands become depleted. What's the estimation of how many years of oil they have? FM has the potential to become one of the largest ghost towns in the world if they don't diversify their economy.
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At peak production (5 million barrels per day), I think the estimate is that the oil will last for over a century. With new technologies opening up a much larger area of the sands to be produced, oil could potentially be produced there for a thousands years. Currently recoverable oil reserves are 170 billion barrels, however, there is a total of 1.7 trillion barrels in the Athabaska deposit, with potentially up to a trillion barrels recoverable with in-situ methods. Once humanity's dependence on oil is decreased, production will certainly fall. That said, if after 40 years oil becomes replaced with a different dominant energy medium, humanity will still always need oil (textiles, lubricants, etc), so oil will likely be produced from the sands indefinitely, meaning Fort Mac may decline to a stable, rather than explosive, population, but it won't die for a very very long time.
Also, yes it will be taller than anything in London or Hamilton. Also Winnipeg, Quebec City, Phoenix, and many other cities significantly larger.