Tar sands is a colloquialism for what are technically described as bituminous sands, and commonly known as oil sands or (in Venezuela) extra heavy oil. The Athabasca Oil Sands (also known as the Athabasca Tar Sands) are large deposits of Bitumen, or extremely Heavy crude oil, located in northeastern A colloquialism is an expression not used in formal speech, writing or Paralinguistics. The sands are naturally occurring mixtures of sand or clay, water and an extremely dense and viscous form of petroleum called bitumen. Sand is a naturally occurring Granular material composed of finely divided rock and Mineral particles Clay is a naturally occurring material composed primarily of fine-grained Minerals which show plasticity through a variable range of Water content, and Viscosity is a measure of the resistance of a Fluid which is being deformed by either Shear stress or Extensional stress. Petroleum ( L petroleum, from Greek πετρέλαιον, lit Bitumen is a mixture of organic Liquids that are highly Viscous, black sticky entirely soluble in Carbon disulfide, and composed primarily They are found in large amounts in many countries throughout the world, but are found in extremely large quantities in Canada and Venezuela. Country to "Dominion of Canada" or "Canadian Federation" or anything else please read the Talk Page Venezuela (ˌvɛnəˈzweɪlə) officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela (Spanish República Bolivariana de Venezuela) is a country on the ^[1]

They have only recently been considered to be part of the world's oil reserves, as higher oil prices and new technology enable them to be profitably extracted and upgraded to usable products. Oil reserves are the estimated quantities of Crude oil that are claimed to be recoverable under existing Economic and operating conditions Oil sand is often referred to as non-conventional oil or crude bitumen, in order to distinguish the bitumen and synthetic oil extracted from tar sands from the free-flowing hydrocarbon mixtures known as crude oil traditionally produced from oil wells. Non-conventional oil is oil produced or extracted using techniques other than the traditional Oil well method Petroleum ( L petroleum, from Greek πετρέλαιον, lit West Texas PumpjackJPG|thumb|right|300px|This Pumpjack located south of Midland TX is a common sight in West Texas. See Bituminous rocks. Bituminous rocks are Sedimentary rocks, usually Shale, Sandstone, Limestone or Dolostone / Dolomite, that contain traces

Contents 1 History 2 Reserves 3 Production 4 Transportation and refining 5 As oil source, by location 5.1 Canada 5.2 Venezuela 5.3 USA 5.4 Other countries 6 Extraction process 6.1 Surface mining 6.2 Cold flow 6.3 Cyclic Steam Stimulation (CSS) 6.4 Steam Assisted Gravity Drainage (SAGD) 6.5 Vapor Extraction Process (VAPEX) 6.6 Toe to Heel Air Injection (THAI) 7 Environment 7.1 Air 7.2 Land 7.3 Water 7.4 Climate Change 7.4.1 Carbon dioxide sequestration 7.5 Environmental Concerns 8 Input energy 9 See also 10 References 11 External links

History

Oil sands were used by the ancient Mesopotamians and Canadian First Nations, among others. Mesopotamia (from the Greek meaning "land between the rivers" is an area geographically located between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers largely corresponding First Nations is a term of Ethnicity that refers to the Aboriginal peoples in Canada who are neither Inuit nor Métis people In the modern era, they were extensively mined near the city of Pechelbronn, where the vapor separation process was in use in 1742^[2]. Merkwiller-Pechelbronn is a community in the French region of Alsace.

The name tar sands was applied to bituminous sands in the late 19th and early 20th century. People who saw the bituminous sands during this period were familiar with the large amounts of tar residue produced in urban areas as a by-product of the manufacture of coal gas for urban heating and lighting. A by-product is a secondary or incidental product deriving from a Manufacturing process a Chemical reaction or a biochemical pathway and is not the primary product ^[3] The word tar to describe these natural bitumen deposits is really a misnomer, since, chemically speaking, tar is a man-made substance produced by the destructive distillation of organic material, usually coal. Tar is a viscous black Liquid derived from the Destructive distillation of organic matter A misnomer is a term which suggests an interpretation that is known to be untrue Chemistry (from Egyptian kēme (chem meaning "earth") is the Science concerned with the composition structure and properties Destructive distillation is the process of Pyrolysis conducted in a distillation apparatus ( Retort) to allow the volatile products to be collected Organic matter (or organic material) is Matter that has come from a once-living Organism; is capable of Since then, coal gas has almost completely been replaced by natural gas as a fuel, and coal tar as a material for paving roads has been replaced by the petroleum product asphalt. Natural gas is a Gaseous Fossil fuel consisting primarily of Methane but including significant quantities of Ethane, Propane, Coal tar is a brown or black liquid of high Viscosity, which smells of Naphthalene and Aromatic hydrocarbons Coal tar is among the by-products when coal Petroleum ( L petroleum, from Greek πετρέλαιον, lit Asphalt ( is a sticky black and highly viscous liquid or semi-solid that is present in most crude Petroleums and in some natural deposits sometimes termed asphaltum Naturally occurring bitumen is chemically more similar to asphalt than to tar, and oil sands (or oilsands) is more commonly used in the producing areas than tar sands because synthetic oil is what is manufactured from the bitumen. Synthetic oil is Oil consisting of Chemical compounds which were not originally present in Crude oil ( Petroleum) but were Artificially ^[4]

Reserves

Many countries in the world have large deposits of tar sands, including the United States, Russia, and various countries in the Middle East. The United States of America —commonly referred to as the Russia (Россия Rossiya) or the Russian Federation ( Rossiyskaya Federatsiya) is a transcontinental Country extending The Middle East is a Subcontinent with no clear boundaries often used as a synonym to Near East, in opposition to Far East. However, the world's largest deposits occur in two countries: Canada and Venezuela, both of which have tar sands reserves approximately equal to the world's total reserves of conventional crude oil. Country to "Dominion of Canada" or "Canadian Federation" or anything else please read the Talk Page Venezuela (ˌvɛnəˈzweɪlə) officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela (Spanish República Bolivariana de Venezuela) is a country on the Petroleum ( L petroleum, from Greek πετρέλαιον, lit As a result of the development of these reserves, most Canadian oil production in the 21st century is from tar sands or heavy oil deposits, and Canada has become the largest supplier of oil and refined products to the United States. Venezuelan production is also very large, but, due to its political problems, estimates of its production data are not reliable, and its oil production has declined in recent years ^[5], though there is much debate on whether this decline is depletion-related or not.

Oil sands may represent as much as two-thirds of the world's total petroleum resource, with at least 1. 7 trillion barrels (270×10⁹ m³) in the Canadian Athabasca Oil Sands and perhaps 235 billion barrels (37×10⁹ m³) of extra heavy crude in the Venezuelan Orinoco tar sands ^[6] Between them, the Canadian and Venezuelan deposits contain about 3. The Athabasca Oil Sands (also known as the Athabasca Tar Sands) are large deposits of Bitumen, or extremely Heavy crude oil, located in northeastern 6 trillion barrels (570×10⁹ m³) of oil in place, compared to 1. 75 trillion barrels (280×10⁹ m³) of conventional oil worldwide, most of it in Saudi Arabia and other Middle-Eastern countries. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, KSA ( المملكة العربية السعودية, al-Mamlaka al-ʻArabiyya as-Suʻūdiyya) or Suudi The Middle East is a Subcontinent with no clear boundaries often used as a synonym to Near East, in opposition to Far East.

Production

Bituminous sands are a major source of non-conventional oil. Non-conventional oil is oil produced or extracted using techniques other than the traditional Oil well method Conventional crude oil is normally extracted from the ground by drilling oil wells into a petroleum reservoir, allowing oil to flow into them under natural reservoir pressures, although artificial lift and techniques such as water flooding and gas injection are usually required to maintain production as reservoir pressure drops toward the end of a field's life. West Texas PumpjackJPG|thumb|right|300px|This Pumpjack located south of Midland TX is a common sight in West Texas. A petroleum reservoir or an oil and gas reservoir (or system) is a subsurface pool of Hydrocarbons contained in porous Artificial lift involves the use of artificial means to increase the flow of liquids such as Crude oil or water to the surface of a production well The water injection method used in oil production is where Water is injected back into the reservoir usually to increase Pressure and thereby Because extra-heavy oil and bitumen flow very slowly, if at all, toward producing wells under normal reservoir conditions, the sands must be extracted by strip mining or the oil made to flow into wells by in situ techniques which reduce the viscosity by injecting steam, solvents, and/or hot air into the sands. Surface mining is a type of Mining in which soil and rock overlying the mineral deposit are removed In situ (ɪn siːˈtuː is a Latin phrase meaning in the place. Viscosity is a measure of the resistance of a Fluid which is being deformed by either Shear stress or Extensional stress. Uses A Steam engine uses the expansion of steam in order to drive a Piston or Turbine to perform Mechanical work. A solvent is a liquid or gas that dissolves a solid liquid or gaseous Solute, resulting in a Solution. These processes can use more water and require larger amounts of energy than conventional oil extraction, although many conventional oil fields also require large amounts of water and energy to achieve good rates of production.

At the present time, only Canada has a large-scale commercial tar sands industry, though a small amount of oil from tar sands is produced in Venezuela. Both Canada and Venezuela are major suppliers of oil and refined products to the United States. Tar sands now are the source of almost half of Canada's oil production, and output is expanding rapidly, while Venezuelan production has been declining in recent years. Currently, oil is not produced from tar sands on a significant level in the United States. ^[7]

Transportation and refining

The heavy crude oil or crude bitumen extracted from these deposits is a viscous, solid or semisolid form that does not easily flow at normal oil pipeline temperatures, making it difficult to transport to market and expensive to process into gasoline, diesel fuel, and other products. Heavy crude oil or Extra Heavy oil is any type of Crude oil which does not flow easily Bitumen is a mixture of organic Liquids that are highly Viscous, black sticky entirely soluble in Carbon disulfide, and composed primarily Viscosity is a measure of the resistance of a Fluid which is being deformed by either Shear stress or Extensional stress. Pipeline transport is the transportation of goods through a pipe. Despite the difficulty and cost, tar sands are now being mined on a vast scale to extract the bitumen, which is then converted into synthetic oil (syncrude) by bitumen upgraders, or refined directly into petroleum products by specialized refineries. Synthetic crude is the output from a bitumen/extra heavy oil Upgrader facility used in connection with Oil sand production Petroleum products are useful materials derived from crude oil ( Petroleum) as it is processed in Oil refineries. An oil refinery is an industrial Process plant where Crude oil is processed and refined into more useful Petroleum products, such as Gasoline

As oil source, by location

Canada

See also: Athabasca Oil Sands and History of the petroleum industry in Canada (oil sands and heavy oil)

Canada is the largest supplier of crude oil and refined products to the United States, supplying about 20% of total U. The Athabasca Oil Sands (also known as the Athabasca Tar Sands) are large deposits of Bitumen, or extremely Heavy crude oil, located in northeastern See also Non-conventional oil, Heavy crude oil, Tar sands Canada's oil sands and heavy oil resources are among the world's great petroleum deposits Country to "Dominion of Canada" or "Canadian Federation" or anything else please read the Talk Page S. imports, and exports more oil and products to the U. S. than it consumes itself. ^[8] In 2006, bitumen production averaged 1. 25 million barrels per day (200,000 m³/d) through 81 oil sands projects, representing 47% of total Canadian petroleum production. This proportion is expected to increase in coming decades as bitumen production grows while conventional oil production declines. ^[1]

Most of the sands of Canada are located in three major deposits in northern Alberta. Alberta (ælˈbɝtə is one of Canada's prairie provinces. It became a province on September 1 1905 These are the Athabasca-Wabiskaw oil sands of north northeastern Alberta, the Cold Lake deposits of east northeastern Alberta, and the Peace River deposits of northwestern Alberta. The Athabasca Oil Sands (also known as the Athabasca Tar Sands) are large deposits of Bitumen, or extremely Heavy crude oil, located in northeastern Cold Lake is a city in northeastern Alberta, Canada, named after the lake it is situated near This article is about the river For the town in Alberta see Peace River Alberta. Between them they cover over 140,000 square kilometres (54,000 sq mi) - an area larger than England - and hold proven reserves of 1. England is a Country which is part of the United Kingdom. Its inhabitants account for more than 83% of the total UK population whilst its mainland 75 trillion barrels (280×10⁹ m³) of bitumen in place. Bitumen is a mixture of organic Liquids that are highly Viscous, black sticky entirely soluble in Carbon disulfide, and composed primarily About ten percent of this, or 173 billion barrels (27. 5×10⁹ m³), is estimated by the government of Alberta to be recoverable at current prices using current technology, which amounts to 97% of Canadian oil reserves and three-quarters of total North American petroleum reserves. The Executive Council of Alberta (informally and more commonly the Cabinet of Alberta) is the cabinet of that Canadian province. ^[1] In addition to the Alberta deposits, there are major oil sands deposits on Melville Island in the Canadian Arctic islands which are unlikely to see commercial production in the foreseeable future. Melville Island is a vast uninhabited member of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, Canada with an area of. The Canadian Arctic Archipelago, also known as just the Arctic Archipelago, is an Archipelago north of the Canadian mainland in the Arctic

The Alberta deposits contain at least 85% of the world's total reserves of natural bitumen but are concentrated enough to be the only deposits that are economically recoverable for conversion to oil at current prices. Bitumen is a mixture of organic Liquids that are highly Viscous, black sticky entirely soluble in Carbon disulfide, and composed primarily The largest bitumen deposit, containing about 80% of the total, and the only one suitable for surface mining is the Athabasca Oil Sands along the Athabasca River. Surface mining is a type of Mining in which soil and rock overlying the mineral deposit are removed The Athabasca Oil Sands (also known as the Athabasca Tar Sands) are large deposits of Bitumen, or extremely Heavy crude oil, located in northeastern The Athabasca River (French rivière Athabasca) originates from the Columbia Glacier of the Columbia Icefield in Jasper National Park in Alberta The mineable area (as defined by the Alberta government) includes 37 townships covering about 3,400 square kilometres (1,300 sq mi) near Fort McMurray. The term Township generally means the district or area associated with a town Fort McMurray is a community within the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo, Alberta. The smaller Cold Lake deposits are important because some of the oil is fluid enough to be extracted by conventional methods. Cold Lake is a city in northeastern Alberta, Canada, named after the lake it is situated near FLUID ( F ast L ight '''U'''ser '''I'''nterface D esigner is a graphical editor that is used to produce FLTK Source code All three Alberta areas are suitable for production using in-situ methods such as cyclic steam stimulation (CSS) and steam assisted gravity drainage (SAGD). In situ (ɪn siːˈtuː is a Latin phrase meaning in the place. Steam Assisted Gravity Drainage (SAGD is an Enhanced oil recovery technology for producing Heavy crude oil and Bitumen.

The Alberta oil sands have been in commercial production since the original Great Canadian Oil Sands (now Suncor) mine began operation in 1967. Suncor Energy Inc () is Canada 's original Oil sands developer having produced the first barrel of Crude oil from the Athabasca oil sands A second mine, operated by the Syncrude consortium, began operation in 1978 and is the biggest mine of any type in the world. Syncrude Canada Ltd is the world's largest producer of Synthetic crude oil from Oil sands and the largest single source producer in Canada. The third mine in the Athabasca Oil Sands, the Albian Sands consortium of Shell Canada, Chevron Corporation and Western Oil Sands Inc. The Athabasca Oil Sands (also known as the Athabasca Tar Sands) are large deposits of Bitumen, or extremely Heavy crude oil, located in northeastern Shell Canada Limited is the subsidiary of Europe -based Royal Dutch Shell and one of Canada 's largest integrated oil Companies. began operation in 2003. Petro Canada is also developing its $33 billion Fort Hills Project, in partnership with UTS Energy Corporation and Teck Cominco. Petro-Canada () is a Canadian oil and gas firm Its headquarters are in the Petro-Canada Centre in Calgary, Alberta Teck Cominco Limited () is a Canadian Mining company It was formed from the amalgamation of Teck and Cominco in 2001 If approved in 2008, Fort Hills Oilsands upgraders are slated to begin output in 2012.

With the development of new in-situ production techniques such as steam assisted gravity drainage, and with the Oil price increases since 2003, there were several dozen companies planning nearly 100 oil sands projects in Canada, totaling nearly $100 billion in capital investment. In situ (ɪn siːˈtuː is a Latin phrase meaning in the place. Steam Assisted Gravity Drainage (SAGD is an Enhanced oil recovery technology for producing Heavy crude oil and Bitumen. With 2007 crude oil prices significantly in excess of the current average cost of production of $28 per barrel of bitumen. ^[9] all of these projects appear likely to be profitable. However, bitumen production costs are rising rapidly, with production cost increases of 55% since 2005, due to shortages of labor and materials. ^[9]

The minority Conservative government of Canada, pressured to do more on the environment, announced in its 2007 budget that it will phase out some oil sands tax incentives over coming years. The provision allowing accelerated write-off of oil sands investments will be phased out gradually so projects that had relied on them can proceed. For new projects the provision will be phased out between 2011 and 2015. ^[10]

With oil prices setting new highs in 2007, tax incentives were no longer necessary to encourage oil sands projects in Canada. In July Royal Dutch Shell released its 2006 annual report and announced that its Canadian oil sands unit made an after tax profit of $21. Royal Dutch Shell plc, commonly known simply as Shell, is a multinational oil company of Dutch and British origins 75 per barrel, nearly double its worldwide profit of $12. 41 per barrel on conventional crude oil. ^[11] A few days later Shell announced it filed for regulatory approval to build a $27 billion oil sands refinery in Alberta, one of $38 billion in new oil sands projects announced that week. ^[12]

Venezuela

See also: Orinoco tar sands and Energy policy of Venezuela

Located in eastern Venezuela, north of the Orinoco River, the Orinoco oil belt vies with the Canadian tar sand for largest known accumulation of bitumen in the world. Venezuela has the largest conventional oil reserves and the second-largest Natural gas reserves in the Western Hemisphere Venezuela (ˌvɛnəˈzweɪlə) officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela (Spanish República Bolivariana de Venezuela) is a country on the ORiNOCO is the brand name that was used for a family of wireless networking solutions by Proxim (previously Lucent) The Orinoco Belt is a territory which occupies the southern strip of the eastern Orinoco River Basin in Venezuela. Venezuela prefers to call its tar sands "extra heavy oil", and although the distinction is somewhat academic, the extra heavy crude oil deposit of the Orinoco Belt represent nearly 90% of the known global reserves of extra heavy crude oil.

Bitumen and extra-heavy oil are closely related types of petroleum, differing only in the degree by which they have been degraded from the original crude oil by bacteria and erosion. The Venezuelan deposits are less degraded than the Canadian deposits and are at a higher temperature (over 50 degrees Celsius versus freezing for northern Canada), making them easier to extract by conventional techniques. The Celsius Temperature scale was previously known as the centigrade scale.

Although it is easier to produce, it is still too heavy to transport by pipeline or process in normal refineries. Lacking access to first-world capital and technological prowess, Venezuela has not been able to design and build the kind of bitumen upgraders and heavy oil refineries that Canada has. In the early 1980’s the state oil company, PDVSA, developed a method of using the extra-heavy oil resources by emulsifying it with water (70% extra-heavy oil, 30% water) to allow it to flow in pipelines. A slurry pipeline is used in mining to Transport Mineral concentrate from a mineral processing plant near a mine The resulting product, called Orimulsion, can be burned in boilers as a replacement for coal and heavy fuel oil with only minor modifications. Unfortunately, the fuel’s high sulphur content and emission of particulates make it difficult to meet increasingly strict international environmental regulations.

Further development of the Venezuelan resources has been curtailed by political unrest. Venezuela is much less politically stable than a country such as Canada, and a strike by employees of the state oil company was followed by the dismissal of most of its staff. As tensions resolved, strike leaders pointed to the reduction in Venezuela's domestic crude output as an argument that Venezuela's oil production had fallen. However, Venezuela's tar sands crude production, which sometimes wasn't counted in its total, has increased from 125,000 bbl/d (19,900 m³/d) to 500,000 bbl/d (79,000 m³/d) between 2001 and 2006 (Venezuela's figures; IAEA says 300,000 bpd). ^[13][14]

USA

In the United States, tar sands resources are primarily concentrated in Eastern Utah. The State of Utah (ˈjuːtɔː or) is a western state of the United States. Utah's tar sand resource consists of eight major deposits with a combined shallow oil resource of 32 billion barrels (5. 1×10⁹ m³) of oil. The largest of these deposits, the Tar Sand Triangle as it is known, covers an area of 148,000 acres (600 km²) and is located in Wayne and Garfield Counties, between the Dirty Devil and Colorado Rivers. Wayne County is a County located in the US state of Utah. As of 2000 the population was 2509 and by 2005 had been estimated to decrease to 2450 Garfield County is a County located in the US state of Utah. As of 2000 the population was 4735 The Dirty Devil River is a long Tributary of the Colorado River, located in the U The Colorado River (' Aha Kwahwat in Mojave) is a River in the southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico, approximately

The Utah Tar Sands have been quarried since the early 1900s primarily for road paving material. Several pilot extraction tests have been operated by oil companies at various times since 1972. The most recent pilot tests at Asphalt Ridge were conducted by the Laramie Energy Technology Center of the U. S. Department of Energy. In 1975 through 1978 they completed experimental testing of a combined reverse-forward combustion and steam injection scheme. It was concluded that additional testing was necessary.

Efforts to develop Utah's heavy oil primarily ended with the sharp drop in oil prices in the mid-1980s and the high costs of extraction. The 1980s oil glut was a surplus of crude oil caused by falling demand following the 1973 and 1979 energy crises.

Currently, oil is not produced from tar sands on a significant commercial level in the United States, although the U. S. imports twenty percent of its oil and refined products from Canada, and over forty percent of Canadian oil production is from tar sands. Section 526 of the Energy Independence And Security Act prohibits United States government agencies from buying oil produced by processes that produce more greenhouse gas emissions than would traditional petroleum including tar sands. ^[15][16] In addition to being much smaller than the Canadian deposits, U. S tar sands are hydrocarbon wetted, whereas Canadian sands are water wetted. As a result of this difference, extraction techniques for the tar sands in Utah will be different than for those in Canada. A considerable amount of research must be done before a commercially viable production technique can be developed for the U. S. tar sands. Of special concern in the relatively arid western United States is the large amount of water required for tar sands processing. ^[7]

Other countries

Several other countries hold tar sands deposits which are smaller by orders of magnitude. In Congo the Italian oil company Eni have announced in May 2008 a project to develop the small tar sands deposit in order to produce 40 000 barrels per day in 2014^[17]. The Republic of the Congo (République du Congo Kongo: Repubilika ya Kongo; Lingala: Republiki ya Kongó) also known as Congo-Brazzaville Eni SpA () is an Italian multinational oil and gas company with a presence in 70 countries currently Italy's largest industrial company with 2014 ( MMXIV) will be a Common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. Reserves are estimated between 0. 5 and 2. 5 billion barrels depending of propability level.

In Madagascar, Tsimiroro and Bemolanga are two heavy oil/tar sands deposits with a pilot well already producing small amounts of oil in Tsimiroro ^[18] and larger scale exploitation in the early planning phase ^[19]. Madagascar, or Republic of Madagascar (older name Malagasy Republic) is an Island nation in the Indian Ocean off the southeastern Tsimiroro is the name of a large Oil field in the onshore Morondava Basin of Madagascar. Bemolanga is the name of a large Tar sands deposit in the onshore Morondava Basin of Madagascar discovered in the early 1900s

Extraction process

Surface mining

Since Great Canadian Oil Sands (now Suncor) started operation of its mine in 1967, bitumen has been extracted on a commercial scale from the Athabasca Oil Sands by surface mining. Suncor Energy Inc () is Canada 's original Oil sands developer having produced the first barrel of Crude oil from the Athabasca oil sands Surface mining is a type of Mining in which soil and rock overlying the mineral deposit are removed In the Athabasca sands there are very large amounts of bitumen covered by little overburden, making mining the most efficient method of extracting it. The overburden consists of water-laden muskeg (peat bog) over top of clay and barren sand. Muskeg is an acidic soil type common in Arctic and Boreal areas although it is found in other northern climates as well The tar sands themselves are typically 40 to 60 metres deep, sitting on top of flat limestone rock. Limestone is a Sedimentary rock composed largely of the Mineral Calcite ( Calcium carbonate: CaCO3 Originally, the sands were mined with draglines and bucket-wheel excavators and moved to the processing plants by conveyor belts. Dragline excavation systems are Heavy equipment used in Civil engineering and surface Mining. Bucket-wheel excavators are Heavy equipment used in Surface mining and Civil engineering. A belt conveyor consists of two or more Pulleys with a continuous loop of material - the conveyor belt - that rotates about them In recent years companies such as Syncrude and Suncor have switched to much cheaper shovel-and-truck operations using the biggest power shovels (100 or more tons) ^[20] and dump trucks (400 tons) in the world. Syncrude Canada Ltd is the world's largest producer of Synthetic crude oil from Oil sands and the largest single source producer in Canada. Suncor Energy Inc () is Canada 's original Oil sands developer having produced the first barrel of Crude oil from the Athabasca oil sands A Power shovel (also called a Stripping or Front Shovel in some markets is a bucket equipped machine usually electrically powered used for digging and loading earth or fragmented A dump truck or production truck is a Truck used for transporting loose material (such as Sand, Gravel, or dirt) for Construction This has held production costs to around $27 per barrel of synthetic crude oil despite rising energy and labour costs. Synthetic crude is the output from a bitumen/extra heavy oil Upgrader facility used in connection with Oil sand production ^[21]

After excavation, hot water and caustic soda (NaOH) is added to the sand, and the resulting slurry is piped to the extraction plant where it is agitated and the oil skimmed from the top. ^[22] Provided that the water chemistry is appropriate to allow bitumen to separate from sand and clay, the combination of hot water and agitation releases bitumen from the tar sand, and allows small air bubbles to attach to the bitumen droplets. The bitumen froth floats to the top of separation vessels, and is further treated to remove residual water and fine solids. Bitumen is much thicker than traditional crude oil, so it must be either mixed with lighter petroleum (either liquid or gas) or chemically split before it can be transported by pipeline for upgrading into synthetic crude oil. Bitumen is a mixture of organic Liquids that are highly Viscous, black sticky entirely soluble in Carbon disulfide, and composed primarily Petroleum ( L petroleum, from Greek πετρέλαιον, lit

The bitumen is then transported and eventually upgraded into synthetic crude oil. About two tons of tar sands are required to produce one barrel (roughly 1/8 of a ton) of oil. Roughly 75% of the bitumen can be recovered from sand. After oil extraction, the spent sand and other materials are then returned to the mine, which is eventually reclaimed.

Recent enhancements to this method include Tailings Oil Recovery (TOR) units which recover oil from the tailings, Diluent Recovery Units to recover naptha from the froth, Inclined Plate Settlers (IPS) and disc centrifuges. Tailings (also known as slimes, gangue, tailings pile, tails, leach residue, or slickens) are the materials left over Tailings (also known as slimes, gangue, tailings pile, tails, leach residue, or slickens) are the materials left over A Diluent (also referred to as a dilutant or thinner) is a diluting agent Naphtha normally refers to a number of different flammable liquid mixtures of hydrocarbons i These allow the extraction plants to recover over 90% of the bitumen in the sand.

Three tar sands mines are currently in operation and a fourth is in the initial stages of development. The original Suncor mine opened in 1967, while the Syncrude mine started in 1978 and Shell Canada opened its Muskeg River mine (Albian Sands) in 2003. Suncor Energy Inc () is Canada 's original Oil sands developer having produced the first barrel of Crude oil from the Athabasca oil sands Syncrude Canada Ltd is the world's largest producer of Synthetic crude oil from Oil sands and the largest single source producer in Canada. Shell Canada Limited is the subsidiary of Europe -based Royal Dutch Shell and one of Canada 's largest integrated oil Companies. Albian Sands Energy Inc. is the operator of the Muskeg River Mine, an Oil sands mining project located north of Fort McMurray Alberta, Canada New mines under construction or undergoing approval include Canadian Natural Resources Ltd Horizon Project (in the initial stages of development), Shell Canada's Jackpine mine, Imperial Oil's Kearl Oil Sands Project, Synenco Energy's Northern Lights mine, and Petro-Canada's Fort Hills mine. Shell Canada Limited is the subsidiary of Europe -based Royal Dutch Shell and one of Canada 's largest integrated oil Companies. Imperial Oil Limited ( French: Compagnie Pétrolière Impériale Limitée) () is Canada 's largest Petroleum company The Kearl Oil Sands Project is a proposed Oil sands mine and Bitumen upgrader in the Athabasca Oil Sands region Petro-Canada () is a Canadian oil and gas firm Its headquarters are in the Petro-Canada Centre in Calgary, Alberta

It is estimated that approximately 80% of the Alberta tar sands and nearly all of Venezuelan sands are too far below the surface to use open-pit mining. Open-pit mining, also known as opencast mining and open-cut mining and strip mining, refers to a method of extracting rock or Minerals Several in-situ techniques have been developed to extract this oil. In situ (ɪn siːˈtuː is a Latin phrase meaning in the place. ^[23]

Cold flow

In this technique, also known as cold heavy oil production with sand (CHOPS), the oil is simply pumped out of the sands, often using progressive cavity pumps. A progressive cavity pump is also known as a progressing cavity pump, eccentric screw pump or even just cavity pump and as is common in engineering generally This only works well in areas where the oil is fluid enough. FLUID ( F ast L ight '''U'''ser '''I'''nterface D esigner is a graphical editor that is used to produce FLTK Source code It is commonly used in Venezuela (where the extra-heavy oil is at 50 degrees Celsius), and also in the Wabasca, Alberta Oil Sands, the southern part of the Cold Lake, Alberta Oil Sands and the Peace River Oil Sands. The Celsius Temperature scale was previously known as the centigrade scale. Cold Lake is a city in northeastern Alberta, Canada, named after the lake it is situated near It has the advantage of being cheap and the disadvantage that it recovers only 5-6% of the oil in place. Oil in place is the total hydrocarbon content of an Oil reservoir and is often abbreviated STOOIP, which stands for Stock Tank Original Oil In Place, or ^[24]

Some years ago Canadian oil companies discovered that if they removed the sand filters from the wells and produced as much sand as possible with the oil, production rates improved remarkably. Sand is a naturally occurring Granular material composed of finely divided rock and Mineral particles This technique became known as Cold Heavy Oil Production with Sand (CHOPS). Further research disclosed that pumping out sand opened "wormholes" in the sand formation which allowed more oil to reach the wellbore. The advantage of this method is better production rates and recovery (around 10%) and the disadvantage that disposing of the produced sand is a problem. Waste management is the collection Transport, processing, Recycling or disposal of Waste materials A novel way to do this was spreading it on rural roads, which rural governments liked because the oily sand reduced dust and the oil companies did their road maintenance for them. A gravel road is a type of unpaved Road surfaced with Gravel that has been brought to the site from a Quarry or Stream bed. Tarmac (short for tarmacadam, a Portmanteau for Tar -penetration Macadam) is a type of highway surface, pioneered by John A road is an identifiable route, way or path between two or more places. However, governments have become concerned about the large volume and composition of oil spread on roads,^[25] so in recent years disposing of oily sand in underground salt caverns has become more common. A salt mine is an operation involved in the extraction of salt from Rock salt or halite a type of evaporitic deposit

Cyclic Steam Stimulation (CSS)

See also: Steam injection (oil industry)

The use of steam injection to recover heavy oil has been in use in the oil fields of California since the 1950s. Steam injection is an increasingly common method of extracting heavy oil Uses A Steam engine uses the expansion of steam in order to drive a Piston or Turbine to perform Mechanical work. The Cyclic Steam Stimulation or "huff-and-puff" method has been in use by Imperial Oil at Cold Lake since 1985 and is also used by Canadian Natural Resources at Primrose and Wolf Lake and by Shell Canada at Peace River. Imperial Oil Limited ( French: Compagnie Pétrolière Impériale Limitée) () is Canada 's largest Petroleum company Cold Lake is a city in northeastern Alberta, Canada, named after the lake it is situated near Canadian Natural Resources Limited () is an oil and Natural gas exploration development and production company based in Calgary Alberta. In this method, the well is put through cycles of steam injection, soak, and oil production. First, steam is injected into a well at a temperature of 300 to 340 degrees Celsius for a period of weeks to months; then, the well is allowed to sit for days to weeks to allow heat to soak into the formation; and, later, the hot oil is pumped out of the well for a period of weeks or months. The Celsius Temperature scale was previously known as the centigrade scale. Once the production rate falls off, the well is put through another cycle of injection, soak and production. This process is repeated until the cost of injecting steam becomes higher than the money made from producing oil. The CSS method has the advantage that recovery factors are around 20 to 25% and the disadvantage that the cost to inject steam is high.

Steam Assisted Gravity Drainage (SAGD)

Steam assisted gravity drainage was developed in the 1980s by an Alberta government research center and fortuitously coincided with improvements in directional drilling technology that made it quick and inexpensive to do by the mid 1990s. Steam Assisted Gravity Drainage (SAGD is an Enhanced oil recovery technology for producing Heavy crude oil and Bitumen. Directional drilling (or slant drilling) is the practice of drilling non-vertical wells It can be broken down into three main groups Oilfield Directional In SAGD, two horizontal wells are drilled in the tar sands, one at the bottom of the formation and another about 5 metres above it. These wells are typically drilled in groups off central pads and can extend for miles in all directions. For a detailed diagram of a Petroleum drilling rig, See Drilling rig (petroleum A drilling rig is a machine which creates holes (usually called In each well pair, steam is injected into the upper well, the heat melts the bitumen, which allows it to flow into the lower well, where it is pumped to the surface. SAGD has proved to be a major breakthrough in production technology since it is cheaper than CSS, allows very high oil production rates, and recovers up to 60% of the oil in place. A disruptive technology or disruptive innovation is a term describing a technological innovation product or service that uses a "disruptive" strategy rather than Because of its very favorable economics and applicability to a vast area of tar sands, this method alone quadrupled North American oil reserves and allowed Canada to move to second place in world oil reserves after Saudi Arabia. Oil reserves are the estimated quantities of Crude oil that are claimed to be recoverable under existing Economic and operating conditions Most major Canadian oil companies now have SAGD projects in production or under construction in Alberta's tar sands areas and in Wyoming. Examples include Japan Canada Oil Sands Ltd's (JACOS) project, Suncor’s Firebag project, Nexen's Long Lake project, Petro-Canada's MacKay River project, Husky Energy's Tucker Lake and Sunrise projects, Shell Canada's Peace River project, Encana's Foster Creek development, ConocoPhillips Surmont project, and Devon Canada's Jackfish project, and Derek Oil & Gas's LAK Ranch project. Japan Canada Oil Sands Limited (JACOS is an oil sands extraction company Suncor Energy Inc () is Canada 's original Oil sands developer having produced the first barrel of Crude oil from the Athabasca oil sands Nexen Inc () is an energy company based in Calgary, Alberta. History Nexen started in 1971 under the name "Canadian Occidental Petro-Canada () is a Canadian oil and gas firm Its headquarters are in the Petro-Canada Centre in Calgary, Alberta Husky Energy Inc ( is a large integrated Energy company based in Calgary, Alberta, Canada in Western Canadian Place. Shell Canada Limited is the subsidiary of Europe -based Royal Dutch Shell and one of Canada 's largest integrated oil Companies. EnCana Corporation is one of the largest oil and gas Companies in the world. ConocoPhillips Company ( is an international energy corporation with its headquarters located in Houston Texas. Alberta's OSUM Corp has combined proven underground mining technology with SAGD to enable higher recovery rates by running wells from underground within the tar sands deposit, thus also reducing energy requirements compared to traditional SAGD. This particular technology application is in its testing phase and has stranded oil and other carbonate applications as well.

Vapor Extraction Process (VAPEX)

VAPEX is similar to SAGD but instead of steam, hydrocarbon solvents are injected into the upper well to dilute the bitumen and allow it to flow into the lower well. It has the advantage of much better energy efficiency than steam injection and it does some partial upgrading of bitumen to oil right in the formation. It is very new but has attracted much attention from oil companies, who are beginning to experiment with it.

The above three methods are not mutually exclusive. It is becoming common for wells to be put through one CSS injection-soak-production cycle to condition the formation prior to going to SAGD production, and companies are experimenting with combining VAPEX with SAGD to improve recovery rates and lower energy costs.

Toe to Heel Air Injection (THAI)

This is a very new and experimental method that combines a vertical air injection well with a horizontal production well. The process ignites oil in the reservoir and creates a vertical wall of fire moving from the "toe" of the horizontal well toward the "heel", which burns the heavier oil components and drives the lighter components into the production well, where it is pumped out. In addition, the heat from the fire upgrades some of the heavy bitumen into lighter oil right in the formation. Historically fireflood projects have not worked out well because of difficulty in controlling the flame front and a propensity to set the producing wells on fire. However, some oil companies feel the THAI method will be more controllable and practical, and have the advantage of not requiring energy to create steam.

Advocates of this method of extraction state that it uses less freshwater, produces 50% less greenhouse gases, and has a smaller footprint than other production techniques ^[26]. Greenhouse gases are gaseous constituents of the atmosphere bothnatural and anthropogenic that absorb and emit radiation at specific wavelengths within the spectrum of thermal infrared

Environment

Like all mining and non-renewable resource development projects, oil sands operations have an effect on the environment. Oil sands projects affect land when the bitumen is mined, the water during the separation process and the air due to the release of carbon dioxide emissions. Additional indirect effects are common to any fossil fuel producer, in that the end products sold (such as gasoline and natural gas) are mostly burned and their combustion products are released into the atmosphere.

Air

The Wood Buffalo Environmental Association (WBEA) monitors the air in the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. This is done through a variety of air, land and human monitoring programs. The information collected is openly shared with stakeholders and the public.

Since 1995, monitoring in the oil sands region shows improved or no change in long term air quality for the five key air quality pollutants--carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, ozone, fine particulate matter (PM2. 5) and sulphur dioxide—used to calculate the Air Quality Index ^[27]. Air monitoring has shown significant increases in exceedances of hydrogen sulfide (H2S) both in the Fort McMurray area and near the oil sands upgraders.

Hydrogen sulfide (or hydrogen sulphide) is the chemical compound with the formula H₂S. A chemical compound is a substance consisting of two or more different elements chemically bonded together in a fixed proportion by Mass. A chemical formula is a way of expressing information about the Atoms that constitute a particular Chemical compound, and how the relationship between those atoms changes Hydrogen (ˈhaɪdrədʒən is the Chemical element with Atomic number 1 Sulfur or sulphur (ˈsʌlfɚ see spelling below) is the Chemical element that has the Atomic number 16 This colorless, toxic and flammable gas is responsible for the foul odour of rotten eggs. Toxicity is the degree to which a substance is able to damage an exposed organism This page is about the physical properties of gas as a state of matter In most Birds and Reptiles an egg ( Latin ovum) is the Zygote, resulting from Fertilization of the Ovum. Hydrogen sulfide gas occurs naturally in crude petroleum, natural gas, volcanic gases and hot springs. It also can result from bacterial breakdown of organic matter and be produced by human and animal wastes.

In 2007, the Alberta government issued an Environmental Protection Order to Suncor Energy Inc. The order comes in response to numerous occasions when ground level concentration (GLC) for H2S exceeded acceptable standards ^[28]. Environmental Protection Orders are issued under the authority of Alberta’s Environmental Protection and Enhancement Act. Alberta Environment can issue Environmental Protection Orders to remedy environmental problems where there has been a release of a substance that has caused or may cause an adverse effect to the environment.

Land

A large part of oil sands mining operations involves clearing trees and brush from a site and removing the overburden - the topsoil, muskeg, sand, clay and gravel - that sits atop the oil sands deposit ^[29]. As a condition of licensing, projects are required to implement a reclamation plan ^[30]. Mine reclamation is the process of creating useful Landscapes that meet a variety of goals typically creating productive Ecosystems (or sometimes industrial or municipal The mining industry asserts that the boreal forest will eventually colonize the reclaimed lands, but that their operations are massive and work on long-term timeframes. As of 2006/2007 (the most recent data available), about 420 km² of land in the oil sands region have been disturbed, and 65 km² of that land is under reclamation. ^[31] In March 2008, Alberta issued the first-ever oil sands land reclamation certificate to Syncrude Canada Ltd. for the 104-hectare parcel of land known as Gateway Hill approximately 35 kilometres north of Fort McMurray. ^[32] Several reclamation certificate applications for oil sands projects are expected within the next 10 years. ^[33]

Syncrude say that at their Base Mine site, land reclamation now exceeds disturbance as that mine reaches the end of its production life. In 2006, Syncrude spent more than $30 million on reclamation activities. To date, they have reclaimed over 46 km² and planted around 4. 5 million tree seedlings. ^[34]

Water

Between 2 to 4. 5 volume units of water are used to produce each volume unit of synthetic crude oil (SCO) in an ex-situ mining operation. Despite recycling, almost all of it ends up in tailings ponds. In SAGD operations, 90 to 95 percent of the water is recycled and only about 0. 2 volume units of water is used per volume unit of bitumen produced. ^[35] Immense amounts of water are used for tar sands operations – currently 349 million cubic metres per year, twice the amount of water used by the city of Calgary . ^[36]

The Athabasca River is the 9th longest river in Canada running 1,231 kilometres from the Athabasca Glacier in west-central Alberta to Lake Athabasca in northeastern Alberta ^[37]. The average annual flow just downstream of Fort McMurray is 633 cubic metres per second ^[38] with its highest daily average measuring 1200 cubic metres per second ^[39].

Current water license allocations totals about 1. 8 per cent of the Athabasca river flow. Actual use in 2006 was about 0. 4 per cent^[40]. In addition, the Alberta government sets strict limits on how much water oil sands companies can remove from the Athabasca River. According to the Water Management Framework for the Lower Athabasca River, during periods of low river flow water consumption from the Athabasca River is limited to 1. 3 per cent of annual average flow. ^[41] The province of Alberta is also looking into cooperative withdrawal agreements between oil sands operators. ^[42]

Future environmental effects could include pipeline developments, and increased oil tanker traffic in northern coastal waters of British Columbia.

Climate Change

The production of bitumen and synthetic crude oil emits higher greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions than the production of conventional crude oil and has been identified as the largest contributor to GHG emissions growth in Canada, as it accounts for 40 million tonnes of CO2 emissions per year. ^[43]

While the emissions intensity of producing oil sands has decreased substantially, i. e. , 26% over the past decade, total emissions are expected to increase due to higher production levels. ^[44] Currently, to produce one barrel of oil from the oil sands releases almost 75 kg of GHG with total emissions estimated to be 67 megatonne (Mt) per year by 2015. ^[45]

In January 2008, the Alberta government released Alberta’s 2008 Climate Change Strategy. Alberta’s emissions are projected to grow to 400 megatonnes (Mt) by 2050, largely due to forecast growth in the oil sands sector^[46]. The new plan will cut the projected 400 Mt in half by 2050, with a 139 Mt reduction coming from carbon capture and storage—the bulk of those reductions (100 Mt) will come from activities related to oil sands production ^[47].

Carbon dioxide sequestration

Future plants are expected to sequester the combustion products, but for now most ex-situ carbon dioxide (CO₂) is released to the atmosphere. ^[48] It would have no effect in the United States, where most of the products would be consumed, and which has not signed the Kyoto Protocol. The Kyoto Protocol is a protocol to the international Framework Convention on Climate Change with the objective of reducing Greenhouse gases in an effort

A major Canadian initiative called the Integrated CO₂ Network (ICO2N) is a proposed system for the capture, transport and storage of CO₂. The members represent a group of industry participants providing a framework for carbon capture and storage development in Canada. ^[49] On March 10, 2008 the Canadian Environment Ministry announced new controls requiring carbon sequestration from 2010, including criminal sanctions for violators. Events 241 BC - First Punic War: Battle of the Aegates Islands - The Romans sink the Carthaginian fleet bringing 2008 ( MMVIII) is the current year in accordance with the Gregorian calendar, a Leap year that started on Tuesday of the Common ^[50]

Oil sands projects in Canada could face tougher regulatory scrutiny after a federal court ruling on March 6, 2008, which found the approval of Imperial Oil Ltd. Events 1079 - Omar Khayyám completes the Iranian calendar. 1454 - Thirteen Years' War: Delegates of 2008 ( MMVIII) is the current year in accordance with the Gregorian calendar, a Leap year that started on Tuesday of the Common Imperial Oil Limited ( French: Compagnie Pétrolière Impériale Limitée) () is Canada 's largest Petroleum company 's $8-billion oil sands mine insufficient on climate change and greenhouse gas emissions. Climate change is any long-term significant change in the “average weather” that a given region experiences Greenhouse gases are gaseous constituents of the atmosphere bothnatural and anthropogenic that absorb and emit radiation at specific wavelengths within the spectrum of thermal infrared Numerous large proposals are in the regulatory system right now, including major mines by Total SA of France, by Anglo-Dutch Royal Dutch Shell and by Petro-Canada, as well as steam-injection projects by EnCana of Calgary. Total SA () is an oil company headquartered in Paris, France, and one of the six " Supermajor " oil companies in the world Royal Dutch Shell plc, commonly known simply as Shell, is a multinational oil company of Dutch and British origins Petro-Canada () is a Canadian oil and gas firm Its headquarters are in the Petro-Canada Centre in Calgary, Alberta EnCana Corporation is one of the largest oil and gas Companies in the world. ^[51]

Environmental Concerns

Due to the greater environmental damage caused by tar sand extraction, tar sands are generally not accepted by environmental groups such as Greenpeace ^[52][53]. Greenpeace, originally known as the Greenpeace Foundation, was founded in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada in 1972 Environmentalists state that their main concerns with tar sands are land damage, greenhouse gas emissions, and water use. Greenhouse gases are gaseous constituents of the atmosphere bothnatural and anthropogenic that absorb and emit radiation at specific wavelengths within the spectrum of thermal infrared Tar sands extraction is generally held to be more environmentally damaging than conventional crude oil - carbon dioxide emissions, for example, are roughly three to five times greater with tar sands extraction. Petroleum ( L petroleum, from Greek πετρέλαιον, lit Carbon dioxide ( Chemical formula:) is a Chemical compound composed of two Oxygen Atoms covalently bonded to a single On a life-cycle basis, including emissions related to transportation by pipeline or tanker, refining, and end use, tar sands are about 10 per cent more carbon intensive than Middle East crude oils.

Input energy

Large amounts of energy are needed to extract and upgrade the bitumen to synthetic crude. At this point in time, most of this is produced by burning natural gas which is widely available in the tar sands area. Approximately 1. 0 to 1. 25 gigajoules of natural gas are needed per barrel of bitumen extracted. ^[54] Since a barrel of oil equivalent is about 6. The barrel of oil equivalent (bboe sometimes BOE is a unit of energy based on the approximate energy released by burning one barrel of Crude oil. 117 gigajoules, this produces about 5 or 6 times as much energy as is consumed. Energy efficiency is expected to improve to 0. 7 gigajoules of energy per barrel by 2015,^[55] giving an EROEI of about 9. In Physics, Energy economics and ecological energetics, EROEI (Energy Returned on Energy Invested ERoEI, EROI (Energy Return On However, since natural gas production in Alberta peaked in 2001 and has been static ever since, it is likely tar sands requirements will be met by cutting back natural gas exports to the U. S. ^[56]

Alternatives to natural gas exist and are available in the tar sands area. Bitumen can itself be used as the fuel, consuming about 30-35% of the raw bitumen per produced unit of synthetic crude. Nexen's Long Lake project (in construction) will use a proprietary desasphalting technology to upgrade the bitumen, and asphalt will be fed to a gasifier whose syngas will be used by a cogeneration turbine and an hydrogen producting unit, provinding all the energy needs of the project : steam, hydrogen, and electricty^[57]. Gasification is a process that converts carbonaceous materials such as Coal, Petroleum, or Biomass, into Carbon monoxide and Hydrogen Syngas (from syn thesis gas) is the name given to a gas mixture that contains varying amounts of Carbon monoxide and Hydrogen. Energy recycling Cogeneration (also combined heat and power, CHP) is the use of a Heat engine or a Power station to simultaneously generate both Thus, it will produce syncrude without consuming natural gas, but the capital cost is very high.

Coal is widely available in Alberta and is inexpensive, but produces large amounts of greenhouse gases. Nuclear power is another option which has been proposed, but did not appear to be economic as of 2005. ^[58] In early 2007 the Canadian House of Commons Standing Committee on Natural Resources considered that the use of nuclear power to process oil sands could reduce CO₂ emissions and help Canada meet its Kyoto commitments, as it would require nearly 12 GW to meet production growth to 2015, but the implications of building reactors in northern Alberta were not yet well understood. The House of Commons (Chambre des communes is a component of the Parliament of Canada, along with the Sovereign (represented by the Governor General) and ^[59][60][61] Energy Alberta Corporation announced in 2007 that they had filed application for a license to build a new nuclear plant at Lac Cardinal, 30 km west of the town of Peace River. Energy Alberta Corporation was created in 2005 to provide Nuclear power to the energy-intensive development of the Oil sands resources in northern Alberta This article is about the river For the town in Alberta see Peace River Alberta. The application would see an initial twin AECL Advanced CANDU Reactor ACR-1000 plant go online in 2017, producing 2. The CANDU reactor is a Canadian-invented Pressurized heavy water reactor developed initially in the late 1950s and 1960s by a partnership between Atomic Energy of 2 GW (electric). The watt (symbol W) is the SI derived unit of power, equal to one Joule of energy per Second. ^[62][63] At 6. 117 GJ/barrel, this is equivalent to conserving 31,074 barrels per day (4,940. 4 m³/d). On November 30, 2007 Bruce Power, which owns eight CANDU reactors in Ontario, signed a letter of intent to acquire Energy Alberta and take over the project. Events 1700 - Battle of Narva — A Swedish army of 8500 men under Charles XII defeats Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. Bruce Power Limited Partnership is a Canadian business partnership composed of several Corporations. ^[64]

See also

• Category:Energy in Canada
• Beaver river sandstone
• History of the petroleum industry in Canada (oil sands and heavy oil)
• Oil megaprojects
• Oil shale
• Steam injection (oil industry)
• World energy resources and consumption

References

External links

• Oil Sands Discovery Centre, Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada
• The Pembina Institute - Presentation to the Oil Sands Multi-stakeholder Committee - Sept 2006
• Alberta stakeholder consultations
• About the Alberta tar sands, environmental issues
• Canadian Oil Sands: Development and Future Outlook - Eddy Isaacs
• When Will World Oil Production Peak? - Guy Caruso, Administrator, Energy Information Administration, U.S. Department of Energy, for 10th Annual Asia Oil and Gas Conference, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia June 13, 2005
• An authoritative article on Bitumen from The Canadian Encyclopedia
• OnEarth Magazine » Canada's Highway to Hell
• Alberta Oilsands photo story and aerials by photographer Jiri Rezac

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