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Japan to send mission to Canada for oil sands research+
(Japan Economic Newswire Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge)TOKYO, Jan. 13_(Kyodo) _ Japan will dispatch its first public-private weeklong mission to Canada's Alberta from Saturday to study the feasibility of exploiting oil sands, or deposits of bitumen trapped in a mixture of sand, water and clay, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry said Friday.
The nine-member mission will include an official from METI's Natural Resources and Energy Agency and representatives of four oil wholesalers -- Cosmo Oil Co., Idemitsu Kosan Co., Nippon Oil Corp. and Japan Energy Corp. -- as well as of Mitsubishi Corp. and Mitsui & Co. trading houses.
The team will visit Edmonton and Calgary to inspect oil sands development facilities there and hold talks with Alberta government officials and local oil producers, METI officials said.
Global reserves of oil sands, also called tar sands, are estimated to total 2 trillion barrels, with 44 percent deposited in Canada and 50 percent in Venezuela. To produce one barrel of crude oil, 1 to 2 tons of oil sands are considered necessary.
Production costs are relatively high because tar sands yield mostly heavy oil, which will not flow unless heated or diluted with lighter hydrocarbons.
Canada exports its oil sands through pipelines to the United States, but it has not developed shipping routes to the Pacific Coast beyond the Rocky Mountains, the officials said.
Japan currently does not have the capacity to process oil sands but industries view the resource as a potential future energy source, they said. Referring to the mission, Economy, Trade and Industry Minister Toshihiro Nikai emphasized the importance of diversifying the energy supply at a press conference Friday.
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