1. Oil Sands Mining and Processing
MINE 292 – Lecture 22
John A. Meech

2. Map of Athabasca Oil Sands

3. Athabasca Oil Sands Facts
Oil Sands occupy ~140,000 km2 (96.6% in situ/3.4% mining)
First oil sands mine opened in 1967 – GCOS (now Suncor)
60% of the total area has been leased to companies for extraction
Oil sands operations involve both mining and in-situ extraction
Surface mineable area is larger than Greater Vancouver
Mining operations occupies and area over 700 km2
Alberta’s oil sands petroleum second in size to Saudi Arabia
In 2008, 45% of Canada’s total oil production came from oil sands
A doubling of current industry size by 2030 has been approved

4. Oil Sand Reserves and Resources
1,409 years
at current planned
production rate
Production Rates
Year bbl/day
,000
,000
,000
,000
,489,000
,200,000
,500,000
247 years
at current planned
production rate
133 years
at current planned
production rate

5. Oil Sands Production

6. Oil Sands Production

7. Canada's Position in the World

8. Oil Prices from 1861 to 2007
OPEC
Oil Crisis
Oil Sands
Start-up

9. Oil Sands Constituents

10. Simplified Petroleum Refining

11. Discovery
For centuries before Europeans arrived, first nations peoples used bitumen, which naturally seeped into the banks of the Athabasca River, as a sealant for canoes.

12. Discovery
1771: Sample presented at Hudson Bay trading post 1778: Fur trader Peter Pond was first European to see the bitumen deposits.

13. Discovery
1875: Canadian Geological Survey provides the first formal government look at the oil sands.

14. Discovery
1892: Earliest picture of oil sands along the Athabasca River.
(D.B. Dowling/Geological Survey of Canada / Library and Archives Canada)

15. Bitumen Seep

16. First Experiments
1915: The city of Edmonton begins to experiment with bitumen for paving roads.

17. First Experiments
1920s: Provincial scientist, Karl Clark, develops hot water-flotation system to separate bitumen from sand.

18. First Experiments
1927: Workers tackling the face of a bitumen sand quarry in Fort McMurray, Alta.
(Sidney Clarke Ells/Library and Archives Canada)

19. Move to Commercialization
1929: After field tests in 1924, Clark and an associate patent the hot-water-flotation system.

20. Move to Commercialization
1930: Clark begins producing from a small plant at Bitumount, on shores of the Athabasca River near Fort McMurray (shown here in 2011).

21. Move to Commercialization
1930: 300 barrels/day with a crew of seven. Product is largely for roofing and paving.
(Jeff McIntosh/The Canadian Press)

22. Move to Commercialization
1938: First commercial oil project - Abasand Oils Ltd. begins producing diesel from the oil sands.

23. Move to Commercialization
1938: Photo of Abasand camp at Horse River in 1936, shows mess hall and bunk house at left and separation plant on right.

24. Move to Commercialization
1938: Plant sold to government after WWII. Not rebuilt after it subsequently burned down
(/National Archives of Canada / Canadian Press)

25. Major Development -GCOS
1953: Great Canadian Oil Sands is formed. Company builds first major commercial oil project in 1962 after regulatory changes in Alberta.

26. Major Development
1963: Sun Oil acquires GCOS, with $250M purchase, at the time, biggest private investment in Canadian history – "the biggest gamble in history".
(The Globe and Mail)

27. Major Development
Pre-1965: Fort McMurray’s first hotel, Oil Sands Hotel along its main street, Franklin Ave.

28. Major Development
1967: Oil begins flowing at 45,000 bbl/d from Sun Oil plant.
(The Canadian Press)

29. Syncrude Consortium
1964: Syncrude consortium is formed. 1973: Work begins on the first Syncrude mine. 1978: First Syncrude oil produced.

30. Syncrude Consortium
1964: Syncrude consortium is formed. 1973: Work begins on the first Syncrude mine. 1978: First Syncrude oil produced.

31. Syncrude Consortium
1979: Syncrude plant at Mildred Lake, Alta. $2.2B Syncrude oil sands mine and plant achieves 100,000 bbl/day production.

33. In-Situ Extraction Commences at Cold Lake
1985: Imperial Oil Ltd. produces first “in-situ” oil.
1989: Production rate hits 140,000 bbl/day.
- Initally high water requirements
- Over 4 bbl water / bbl oil
- Today, ratio is 0.5
Reduction achieved via recycling
95% of water recovered with
oil is recycled.

34. Mining operations: Athabasca oil sands.
NASA Earth Observatory image, 2009.

35. Total Oil Company Consortias

36. Initial Mining – Dragline and BWE/Conveyors

37. Mining today – Shovel-Truck

38. Operating Costs

39. Steam Assisted Gravity Drainage

40. Steam flows to interface and condenses
Suncor's SAG-D Process
SAGD In-situ process
Steam flows to interface and condenses
Steam
Chamber
Bitumen &
Water
Heated bitumen flows to well

41. Toe-and-Heel Air Injection In-situ Recovery

42. Toe-and-Heel Air Injection In-situ Recovery
THAI technology upgrades bitumen during production

43. Oil Sands GHG Profile

44. Clark Hot-Water Process
Clark hot-water process uses caustic water solution to emulsify oil from the oil sand particles.
Sand particles are hydrophilic but surrounded by bitumen.
Process initially recovered ~85% of the bitumen.
Recent process improvements have increased recovery to between 88 and 92 percent.
Unrecovered bitumen discharged with the tailings, leads to significant environmental concern.

45. Clark Hot Water Processing Plant

46. Primary Flotation Vessel

47. Bitumen Upgrading Process

48. Conventional Tailings Dam Management

49. Oils Sands Tailings Pond Reclaimed

50. Oil Sands Tailings Dam

51. Other Oils Sands and Oil Shale Deposits
There are 598 deposits in 23 countries
 Total Oil in place is estimated at:
Discovered: trillion barrels
Total estimated: 3.3 trillion barrels
Natural bitumen reserves are estimated as:
Total: billion barrels
Canada: billion barrels
Kazakhstan: billion barrels
U.S. (Utah): billion barrels
Russia: billion barrels
Congo: – 2.5 billion barrels
Heavy crude oil reserves:
Venezuela: ~260 billion barrels
Oil Shales (Kerogen):
Total ~ 3.0 trillion barrels
U.S trillion barrels

52. Bitumen Characteristics

53. Pipelines

54. Pipelines Bitumen is diluted with Naphtha to allow it to flow
Nevertheless, it is viscous and highly corrosive
When spilled, it behaves differently than does crude
In water, it sinks rather than floats
So skimmers are useless for cleanup.
In 2010, pipelines transported 600,000 barrels of bitumen to the U.S.
Spills are rare but very expensive to deal with and damaging to the environment
First oil-sands bitumen spill occurred into the Kalamazoo River in Clean-up is still on-going.

55. Bitumen Pipeline Spills

56. Keystone Pipeline

57. Northern Gateway Pipeline

58. Northern Gateway Pipeline
Concerns
Oil spills along the pipeline
Traditional territory of First Nations
Oil spills along the B.C. coastline
Desire to not use fossil fuels (particularly dirty ones)

59. West to East Pipeline

60. Impacted Birds

61. Shale Gas – the game-changer