As I posted earlier, there are a couple problems with canadian tar sands oil.
It's lower quality, meaning heavy sour. it has a high percentage of long chain hydrocarbons like asphalts and tars and contains more sulfur and impurities than higher quality benchmark oils. That makes it more expensive to refine and produces a lower yield without additional refining process like delayed cokers and vacuum units.
Plus it's land-locked with no major pipelines which makes it more expensive to ship.
Quote:
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Maya, a benchmark for oil set in Mexico, is similar in quality to Alberta’s WCS, but sells $43 more than Alberta's bitumen (as of January 11, 2013), at $101 per barrel in the market. Oil from Mexico has direct access to the ocean where it can reach international markets. For that reason, it fetches a higher price than Alberta’s oil.
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