OIL SANDS

The Controversies Surrounding the Oil Sands Reserves in Canada

The Controversies Surrounding the Oil Sands Reserves in Canada

Introduction

An oil sands (or tar) are unconventional petroleum deposit. It is a mixture of crude bitumen, which is a semi-solid form of crude oil, sand, clay mineral and water. In other words, it is a sand coated with a layer of water on which is deposited a film of bitumen, plus the film is dense bitumen. After extraction and processing of oil sands bitumen is obtained, which is a mixture of hydrocarbons in solid, liquid or dense, thick and viscous. The oil sands deposits are an important source of synthetic crude oil, or non-conventional oil. The principal reserves are in Alberta (Canada) and the river basin of the Orinoco, in Venezuela. Smaller oil sands deposits exist in other parts of the world.

The formations is shallow (sometimes almost to the outcrop) and contain 80-85% mineral matter (silica and clay), 10 to 12% bitumen and natural 5% of water. The bitumen is not oil per se, as it is at least a hundred times more viscous and much denser. Conventional oil is made of light compounds such as gas, gasoline, and kerosene, and includes heavy compounds such as lubricating oils, heavy fuel oils and bitumen. These compounds have from 3 to 300 carbon atoms and boiling points ranging from -40 to 525 ?. The bitumen in turn consists of the heavy fraction of oil and is somewhat similar to residual fuel oil from the distillation of conventional crude. It contains virtually no alkanes but a lot of complex hydrocarbons, polycyclic, for example. It is rich in sulfur, resins, asphaltenes and heavy metals.

Reserve location

The reserves are highly concentrated in two geological provinces. It is in the northern Alberta that significant oil sands deposits are located. To the west, in the region partially Francophone River-la-Paix (Peace River), south, Cold Lake and north, near the river Athabasca, specifically Fort McMurray. Nearly 20 companies are located in Alberta, including the two most important: Syncrude and Suncor. In addition, to compare equally with the bitumen reserves of conventional oil, must be deducted the energy required for its extraction and processing.

The oil reserves of the Athabasca represent more than 1.7 trillion barrels. Reserves, which can be exploited by technology and current economic conditions, are 174 billion barrels, but it is estimated that 315 billion will eventually be recovered. The sand contains on average 11.5% of bitumen. Therefore, one must use a huge amount of oil sands in order to obtain a high amount of bitumen. The recovery of two tons of tar sands provides a single barrel of bitumen (Humphries, 2010).

Political Perspective

The dominant stakeholder, of Tar sands, is the province of Alberta, who is playing the vital role. The various aspects of oil sands policy is controlled by the various divisions of Albertan government. The regulation of Gas and Oil Industry is the responsibility of the Energy Resource Conservation Board. The responsibility of granting license for collecting royalties, development and exploration, as ...