Oil sands

Oil sands, defined simply are a mixture of water, sand, clay, and natural bitumen. Natural bitumen is a heavily viscous oil, which must undergo specialized procedures in order to be extracted. While oil sands occur in many places in the world, the largest such occurrence is located in the forests of Northern Alberta. This area is referred to as the Alberta Oil Sands, or the Athabasca Oil Sands. Oil sands were not always included when estimating the world’s recoverable oil reserves. It is only in relatively recent years that technology has improved enough to efficiently extract and refine the bitumen into a synthetic crude oil. The Athabasca region was first inhabited by a variety of First Nation’s and Cree tribes. While the indigenous…

demand for oil continues to increase. When conventional oil resources cannot meet the rapid growth of oil demand, people turn their attention to unconventional oil resources, which is an important source of oil sands. By the sand, asphalt, mineral, clay and water in five parts of the oil sands is a kind of unconventional oil resources. It is distributed widely, and is rich in resources. At present, the world oil sand technology is known to be about 1035.1 cubic meters, accounting for 32%% of the…

Located in northeastern Alberta (Pasqualetti 2009, p. 248) are the “largest oil-sand deposits in the world” (Pasqualetti 2009, p. 250). The Alberta oil sands provide a necessary resource that is valuable to the Albertan and Canadian economies. The oil sands have received ample attention in recent years from the media and from various environmental agencies and groups due to “growing concern about a range of environmental impacts” (Jordaan 2012, p. 3611). These concerns are not without merit, as…

As population increases and the standard of living improves, there is more demand for energy. Due to this growth and the decrease in reserves of conventional oil, over the past few years, unconventional forms of oil including oil sands have become a great global provider of energy. Oil sands - also known as tar sands - are mixtures of sand, water, clay and bitumen. With the largest deposit located in Canada, tar sands are found in several places around the globe, including Venezuela, the United…

The oil sands have been one of Canada’s most vital process of operations to achieve economic stability since 1978 with the foundation of Syncrude and the establishment of the largest oil processing mine of any type in the entire world. Another mine was also developed by Syncrude in the Athabasca Oil Sands and began operations in 2003 however was later bought out by Marathon Oil Corporation in 2007. Another $33 million project was also being developed in in Fort Hills by Petro Canada but lost…

There are many conflicting opinions whether the development of the oil sands in Canada should proceed or whether it should slow down on any plans to move forward. Although both arguments have valid points, when it comes to educating the general public, the results depend on who presents their argument in a more understandable and convincing way. I found that between the articles Why Canada needs to develop the oil sands and Stop Oil sands expansion, says Canadian and U.S. Scientists. The former…

The Alberta oil sands are one of Canada’s largest sources of oil and may be the biggest petroleum deposit anywhere in the world. But the oil sands industry has a lot of environmental impacts. The oil sands are one of the major causes of air pollution in Canada and North America. A sticky mixture called Bitumen (which is also known as tar) doesn’t flow easily like petroleum or crude oil so companies have to resort to surface mining (strip or open pit mining) which is bad for the environment…

Froth Treatment: Oil Sands Bitumen Recovery Introduction This description will give you an understanding of the fundamentals behind the Bitumen Froth Treatment process, as performed at Naphthenic Froth Treatment (NFT) operating sites. Bitumen is the valuable hydrocarbon component of the ore formation which begins in the ground, and is extracted by the Mining department. Prior to entering the Froth Treatment facility, the Bitumen Froth is created by mixing the ore with hot water for…

Canadian oil boom Great or Horrible “It a choice between starving or being poisoned” says a local doctor The canadian oil boom is the canadian companies are using oil sands to make oil and it is very poisonous.Canadian oil boom profitable but dangerous these are some things you may ask What are oil sands?What’s crude oil?Where did they come from? So you may ask what are oil sands? According to www.enr.gov.nt.ca Oil sands are a mixture of sand, water, clay and bitumen. Bitumen is oil that…

Keystone XL Pipeline Proposal: A Step Backward A pipeline through our country to supply our need for crude oil is a backward concept, as we should be working toward a clean renewable energy source. Our current reliance on crude oil has us in a panic to find ways to obtain this crude oil with cheaper and easier methods. The Keystone XL Pipeline Plan will not be a cheap and easy way to obtain more fossil fuel and it will cause more damage to our environment and climate as well as harm our safety…