Heavy Oil & Oil Sands Bituma
Heavy Oil & Oil Sands Bituma
Heavy Oil & Oil Sands Bituma

Heavy Oil & Oil Sands Bituman1 2 3 4 5 6

Canada's vast oil sands are the second largest in the world, just behind Saudi Arabia. Located in northeast Alberta, the oil sands produce more than 193 000 cubic metres per day, with a forecasted increase to over 469 000 cubic metres per day by 2015.

  • Canada's oil sands are estimated to contain at least 27.5 billion cubic metres of bitumen that can be recovered and refined with current technology.
  • Oil sands and heavy oil accounted for about 44% of Canada's total oil production in 2007.
  • Heavy oil and raw bitumen production exceeded light and medium conventional oil production for the first time in 2001.

Production is increasing rapidly, as is capital investment.

  • Spending on oil sands projects totalled more than $52.0 billion from 2003 to 2007.
  • Canadian companies will invest close to $17 billion in oil sands in 2007; an additional $67 billion is expected between now and 2012.
  • There are more than 50 projects underway by approximately 30 energy companies.

Only 10 to 20% of oil sands deposits can now be economically targeted for development, although the overall resource is huge.

Recovery Methods

There are two main approaches to oil sands and heavy oil development; in-situ and mining. The method used depends on several factors including; fluid characteristics, rock properties and reservoir depth.

In-situ processes are employed in deeper deposits. They extract the bitumen from the sand by injecting steam, or sometimes fluids. The bitumen becomes mobile and is produced to surface through wells drilled into the deposit. In-situ methods vary from 18 to 60% efficiency depending on such factors as the geological characteristics and complexity of the formation, and the fluid characteristics of the heavy oil such as viscosity and density. In-situ processes have a much smaller footprint on the land than mining projects.

Surface mining is used for shallower bitumen deposits. Overburden is first stripped off to expose the bitumen formation and the oil sands are mined. The oil sands are then conveyed to a cleaning facility where the sand is mixed with warm water and chemicals to separate out the bitumen. Surface mining can recover 90% of the bitumen-in-place by surface.