Oil Sands

Question 1

Oil sands are made up of…

Answer 1

Sand, water, clay, and bitumen (a form of oil)

Question 2

Contains the world’s greatest ____________

Answer 2

crude oil deposit

Question 3

Oil sands are located in…

Answer 3

Cold Lake, Athabasca, and Peace River (they cover more than 142 000 square km)

Question 4

The Athabasca oil sands account for over ___ of Alberta’s GDP

Answer 4

30%

Question 5

Oil sands in Alberta hold over ____ barrels of oil

Answer 5

1.7 trillion

Question 6

Recovery

Answer 6

• 20% of bitumen is close to the surface
• Traditional surface mining techniques are necessary
• In Situ process is required for recovering deeper bitumen

Question 7

What is the In Situ process

Answer 7

Horizontal, parallel wells are drilled and steam is injected through the top well. It heats up the bitumen to allow it to flow down to the bottom well and be pumped to the surface

Question 8

Extraction

Answer 8

• Warm water is combined with the bitumen - this makes the bitumen rise to the surface
• The remaining product is a mixture of sand, water, clay, and residual bitumen - this is called tailings

Question 9

Upgrading

Answer 9

• Converts heavy bitumen into higher value, synthetic crude oil, and diesel fuel
• Coke drums are where temperature and pressure are used to thermally crack the long-chain hydrocarbon molecules into shorter-chain molecules (these can be transported by pipeline)
• The lighter hydrocarbons are separated under vacuum conditions and high temperatures
• The byproducts of this process are petroleum coke and sulfur

Question 10

Reclamation

Answer 10

• When tailings are released into ponds, mostly sand settles to the bottom, and water rises to the top
• The mature fine tailings, which is the middle layer, is made up of fine clay particles suspended in water
• Suncor has the plan to reclaim all land disrupted by their oil sands