Oil Sands 101 — Transcript

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1. 0:00oil sands or as it has been dubbed by
2. 0:03some tar Sands refers to the mixture of
3. 0:06sand clay and water that contains
4. 0:08naturally occurring extra heavy crude
5. 0:10oil known as
6. 0:12bitumin bitumin is highly viscous
7. 0:14meaning it does not flow unless it is
8. 0:16heated or mixed with lighter
9. 0:18hydrocarbons think of it like cold
10. 0:21molasses conventional drilling
11. 0:23techniques cannot be used on bitamin
12. 0:25because it is too viscous to flow and
13. 0:27sticks to the sand grain in which it was
14. 0:29found
15. 0:31therefore other extraction techniques
16. 0:33were developed to produce the oil the
17. 0:35most common methods being open pit
18. 0:36Mining and insitu which is Latin for in
19. 0:40place bitumin within 75 M of the surface
20. 0:43is open pit mind first huge clumps of
21. 0:46oil sands are shoveled into large trucks
22. 0:49they are then taken to Crushers where
23. 0:51they are broken down and mixed with
24. 0:52heated water to separate the bitumin
25. 0:54from the sand once the bitumin is
26. 0:56released it is sent for further
27. 0:58processing around 80% of the oil sands
28. 1:01are found 75 M below the surface and to
29. 1:04extract them Inu or underground methods
30. 1:07must be used the majority of the inue
31. 1:10operations pumps steam Underground
32. 1:13through horizontal Wells with the
33. 1:14purpose of liquefying the bitumin which
34. 1:16can then be pumped up to the surface a
35. 1:18method called steam assisted Gravity
36. 1:21Drainage produced bitumin is heavier
37. 1:24than conventional sources and requires a
38. 1:26special process called upgrading to give
39. 1:28it properties similar to conven
40. 1:29ventional oil once processed biman is
41. 1:33refined just like conventional oil into
42. 1:35common petroleum products the two
43. 1:37largest oil sands reserves in the world
44. 1:39are located in Northern Alberta Canada
45. 1:41and Venezuela the oil sands represent a
46. 1:44large supply of potentially recoverable
47. 1:46oil and like all oil its key Advantage
48. 1:49is its energy density it is a versatile
49. 1:52Transportation Fuel and is used in the
50. 1:54creation of petroleum based products
51. 1:55that we use every day like plastics oil
52. 1:58sands development poses environmental
53. 2:00and Social Challenges the crude derived
54. 2:02from oil sands is more carbon intensive
55. 2:04than conventional crude this is due to
56. 2:07the greenhouse gas emissions associated
57. 2:08with production techniques used in the
58. 2:10oil sands other environmental challenges
59. 2:12include heavy water use which in most
60. 2:15cases comes from freshwat sources
61. 2:17tailings ponds which are man-made dams
62. 2:19for storing waste water from oil sands
63. 2:21mining processes are problematic because
64. 2:24of the contaminants contained in the
65. 2:25waste waterer the water cannot be
66. 2:27naturally recycled back into the
67. 2:29ecosystem but many companies are
68. 2:31exploring Technologies to return the
69. 2:32water and ponds to their natural States
70. 2:35land disturbance and use is also a
71. 2:37concern for the oil sands particularly
72. 2:39when it comes to mining as deposits
73. 2:41occur in ecologically diverse areas
74. 2:43finally oil sands production costs are
75. 2:46higher than conventional sources of
76. 2:48oil that's oil sands
77. 2:54[Music]