A small perspective of the Canadian Sales position.
http://www.investorvillage.com/smbd.asp?mb=294&mn=78711&pt=msg&mid=5134076
" The Billionth Barrel: Syncrude went into operation in the summer of 1978 and produced 5 million barrels of oil within a year. World oil prices leaped skyward in 1979-80 and remained high for the first half of the 1980s. This helped Syncrude become successful financially as well as technically. The collapse of oil prices in 1986 – followed by 15 years of lower prices – intensified the organization’s incentive to reduce costs per barrel while increasing production. Production rose steadily in the ensuing years and, on April 16, 1998, the plant piped its billionth barrel down the line – five years ahead of schedule.
Ten years later, a counter on the Syncrude website zips along at a rate of four barrels a second, estimating the volume the plant has produced: as this magazine goes to press, about 1.9 billion barrels. A giant since inception, Syncrude is too big and complex to easily conceptualize. The largest producer of crude oil from oilsands, 350,000 barrels of oil pour from its processing vessels every day. EVERY TWENTY-FOUR HOURS, THE SANDS WEAR THE METALLIC EQIVALENT OF TWO FULL-SIZED PICKUP TRUCKS OFF THE THE PLANT'S MINING EQUIPMENT".