Oil sands face uncertain future in post-peak world

The long-term prospects for the sector may depend on the rate of decline in global oil consumption

Supporters and critics of Canada’s oil sands sector are broadly optimistic in their short- and medium-term outlooks, but they diverge sharply when looking further ahead. In the longer term, proponents are optimistic about Opec+ cohesion and crude prices as global oil consumption declines, but others are pessimistic. This leads to differing views on how the federal government should spend its decarbonisation dollars. Petroleum Economist interviewed G. Kent Fellows, a professor at the University of Calgary, and Aaron Cosbey, a senior associate at Winnipeg-based International Institute for Sustainable Development to learn more about these alternate perspectives on how the oil sands industry mig