oil sands or as it has been dubbed by
some tar sands refers to the mixture of
sand clay and water that contains
naturally-occurring extra-heavy crude
oil
no one is bitumen bitumen is highly
viscous meaning it does not flow unless
it is heated or mixed with lighter
hydrocarbons think of it like cold
molasses conventional drilling
techniques cannot be used on bitumen
because it is too viscous to flow and
sticks to the sand grains in which was
found there for other extraction
techniques were developed to produce the
oil the most common methods being
open-pit mining and in 6u which is Latin
for in-place bitumen within 75 metres of
the surface is open-pit mined first huge
clumps of oil sands are shoveled into
large trucks they are then taken to
crushers where they are broken down and
mixed with heated water to separate the
bitumen from the sand once the bitumen
is released it is sent for further
processing around 80 percent of the oil
sands are found 75 metres below the
surface and to extract them Institute or
underground methods must be used the
majority of the Institute operations
pump steam underground through
horizontal wells with the purpose of
liquefying the bitumen which can then be
pumped up to the surface a method called
steam assisted gravity drainage produced
bitumen is heavier than conventional
sources and requires a special process
called upgrading to give it properties
similar to conventional oil once
processed bitumen is refined just like
conventional oil into common petroleum
products the two largest oil sands
reserves in the world are located in
northern Alberta Canada and Venezuela
the oil sands represent a large supply
of potentially recoverable oil and like
all oil it's key advantage is its energy
density
it is a versatile transportation fuel
and is used in the creation of
petroleum-based products that we use
every day like plastics oil sands
development poses environmental and
social challenges the crude derived from
oil sands is more carbon intensive than
conventional crude this is due to the
greenhouse gas emissions associated with
production techniques used in the oil
sands other environmental challenges
include heavy water use which in most
cases comes from freshwater sources
tailings ponds which are man-made dams
for storing wastewater from oil sands
mining processes are problematic because
of the contaminants contained in the
wastewater the water cannot be naturally
recycled back into the ecosystem but
many companies are exploring
technologies to return the water and
ponds to their natural States land
disturbance and use is also a concern
for the oil sands particularly when it
comes to mining as deposits occur in
ecologically diverse areas finally oil
sands production costs are higher than
conventional sources of oil that's oil
sands