An investor at the annual John S. Herold Pacesetters conference prefers Canada's oil sands to unconventional and gas shale plays in the U.S.

"I think, in the next decade, daily production from the oil sands will exceed that of Saudi Arabia and Russia. I foresee 32% CAGR to 2015. I ask you, where else can you find that kind of growth?" said Chuck Davidson of Wexford Capital LLC, a money-management firm based in Greenwich, Connecticut

Davidson noted that most leasing is now finished in Alberta's oil-sands region. "It took 10 years for the players to lease 10 million acres there for an outlay of $2.4 billion, to tie up the single biggest resource on the planet.

"I suspect if you add up all the money spent leasing in the sexy plays like the Barnett shale, much more has been spent-but on far fewer barrels of oil equivalent."

He showed data indicating long-time oil-sands operator Suncor has returned 45.6% to investors since inception, as opposed to single-digit returns from American stars such as XTO Energy Inc., Devon Energy Corp., Anadarko Petroleum Corp. and Chesapeake Energy Corp.

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