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

Map of Athabasca Oil Sands

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

Oil Sand Reserves and Resources 1,409 years at current planned production rate Production Rates Year bbl/day 1967 45,000 1978 145,000 1985 245,000 2005 745,000 2010 1,489,000 2015 2,200,000 2025 3,500,000 247 years at current planned production rate 133 years at current planned production rate

Oil Sands Production

Oil Sands Production

Canada's Position in the World

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

Oil Sands Constituents

Simplified Petroleum Refining

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.

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

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

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

Bitumen Seep

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

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

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

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

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).

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

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

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.

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

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

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)

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

Total Oil Company Consortias

Initial Mining – Dragline and BWE/Conveyors

Mining today – Shovel-Truck

Operating Costs

Steam Assisted Gravity Drainage

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

Toe-and-Heel Air Injection In-situ Recovery

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

Oil Sands GHG Profile 1990-2012

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.

Clark Hot Water Processing Plant

Primary Flotation Vessel

Bitumen Upgrading Process

Conventional Tailings Dam Management

Oils Sands Tailings Pond Reclaimed

Oil Sands Tailings Dam

Other Oils Sands and Oil Shale Deposits There are 598 deposits in 23 countries  Total Oil in place is estimated at: Discovered: 2.5 trillion barrels Total estimated: 3.3 trillion barrels   Natural bitumen reserves are estimated as: Total: 250 billion barrels Canada: 177 billion barrels Kazakhstan: 42 billion barrels U.S. (Utah): 32 billion barrels Russia: 28 billion barrels Congo: 0.5 – 2.5 billion barrels Heavy crude oil reserves: Venezuela: ~260 billion barrels Oil Shales (Kerogen): Total ~ 3.0 trillion barrels U.S. 1.8 trillion barrels

Bitumen Characteristics

Pipelines

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 2010. Clean-up is still on-going.

Bitumen Pipeline Spills

Keystone Pipeline

Northern Gateway Pipeline

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)

West to East Pipeline

Impacted Birds

Shale Gas – the game-changer