Oil Sands by Tony Green

What does the term “Oil Sands” mean to you? In the event you are not native to Canada the answer may be cloudy. Other terms used to describe may more familiar, some of which include extra heavy oil and tar sands. All of these are types of bitumen deposits which are naturally occurring mixtures of sand or clay, water and bitumen, a dense and viscous form of petroleum. The materials are so viscous that at room temperature its behavior resembles cold molasses.

They are found in large amounts in many countries throughout the world, but exist in extremely large quantities in Canada, Russia, and Venezuela.

Deposits of bitumen are formed from the remains of ancient, microscopic algae and other once-living things. At the time these organisms died, their remains were deposited in the mud on the bottom of the ocean or lake where they lived. Under the heat and pressure of burial deep in the earth, the remnants were transformed into this material.

The thick properties of the bitumen allow use for paving roads, waterproofing products and for sealing flat roofs. Naturally occurring crude bitumen is the prime feed stock for petroleum production from tar sands currently under development in Alberta, Canada. Canada has most of the world's supply of natural bitumen, giving our northern neighbor the second largest proven oil reserves in the world.

Why shouldn’t we tap this resource? The technology required to extract the crude oil in a format which in can be converted into material we use such as diesel and gasoline is still in beginning stages of development. In short, converting the bitumen to oil which can be processed involves injecting steam into the deposit to remove the water and extracting the petroleum rich deposits.

How is this for a thought? In the event non-traditional means of producing oil are not adopted soon why not turn our attention to Oil Sands as to a source of crude oil to our friendly neighbor to the north?

Think of it this way, in light of the recent calamity in the Gulf of Mexico it is very difficult to spill tar deposits from an oil tanker.

Photo Courtesy of http://ostseis.anl.gov