Tar sands in Alberta

The Athabasca Tar Sands is a large deposit of tar sands in north-western Canada located mainly in the province of Alberta and, to a much lesser degree Saskatchewan. Oil from tar sands is recovered through various processes including strip mining, separation of oil from tar and sand by steam, and additional refining to convert the molasses like bitumen into conventional light sweet crude oil.

Tar sands oil production has a larger environmental impact and is less efficient compared with conventional oil production. In particular, such production makes heavy use of water and causes greater groundwater pollution. As conventional sources of oil are depleted, non conventional sources of oil will increasingly be relied upon to make up the difference. Environmental impacts from tar sands oil fields will grow in direct relation to the expected exponential increase of production over the next 20 years.

Estimated Size

While not a proven oil reserve, it is estimated that the Athabasca Tar Sands field contains as much as one third of the world's total oil deposits, with a similiar amount in the Venezuelan Orinoco tar sands field. Current production at the Athabasca site yields 120,000 barrels of oil per day with an increase to 280,000 by 2010 at a cost of $4,000,000,000 expected. Athabasca oil production is currently just a fraction of the 82,000,000 barrels of oil produced daily around the world.

According to the Alberta Energy and Utilities Board, the Athabasca tar sands is the largest oil deposit in the world, with an estimated 1.6 trillion barrels (254 km³) of oil, of which at most 315 billion barrels are considered recoverable by the oil companies given current technology. Syncrude (http://www.syncrude.com/who_we_are/01_06.html), one of the oil companies involved in mining the tar sands, states that the entire tar sand deposit is twice the size of Venezuelan Orinoco tar sands deposit is slightly larger than Athabasca (see tar sands article).

The Athabasca Tar Sands field is primarily located in and around Fort McMurray, an area that has only recently been heavily explored.

External Links

• Athabasca Info (http://www.syncrude.com/who_we_are/01_02.html)
• Map of the Athabasca Tar Sands superimposed on map of Alberta (http://www.osern.rr.ualberta.ca/Images/old/AOSM_Full.gif)
• University of Alberta FAQ on oil sands (http://www.osern.rr.ualberta.ca/index.asp?page=oil_sands_faqs)