Taipei - Taiwan's Formosa Plastics Group, in response to soaring crude price, is considering reviving its plan to mine oil sand in Canada to extract oil sand, a newspaper said on Saturday.

According to the Apple Daily, the Formosa Petrochemical Corp (FPCC), which is under the Formosa Plastics Group, plans to send an inspection delegation to Alberta.

FPCC said the cost of extracting oil from oil sand is 3.5 times more than the cost of refining crude oil. But as the international oil price remains above 100 US dollars per barrel, it is still worthwhile.

The per barrel oil price on the international market has hit 130 US dollars this week.

Alberta Province has 175 billion barrels of proved oil sand, next only to the 260 billion barrels' reserves in Saudi Arabia.

Although Alberta is rich in oil it must be processed before it can be used. The oil sand must be heated to a certain temperature to separate the sand from the oil.

However, FPCC is cautious in its investment plan because of the unpredicability of world oil prices, the Apple Daily quoted an unnamed FPCC official as saying.

"This time last year the world crude price was 50-60 US dollars per barrel but now it is 130 US dollars. So it is risky to pour too much money into our investment. The key to whether we will revive our mining plan or not is if we can extract 60 per cent of oil from the oil sand," the official said. (dpa)