FOSSIL FUELS IVTar Sand and Oil Shale

Alternate Oils

Tar Sands – Oil Sands Tar sands are sands or partly

consolidated sandstone that contains a petroleum product called bitumen.

Bitumen (asphalt) is a viscous form of petroleum that must be treated in order to convert it into a crude oil before it can be refined to produce gasoline and other products.

(The stuff on roads is asphalt concrete)

Oil sand occurs in more than 70 countries.

Largest deposits– Alberta, Canada– Orinoco, Venezuela– Russia

Bulk is found in three regions of Alberta

Estimated Canadian oil sands exceeds conventional world reserves

World Oil Reserves

World Oil Sands Reserves

Bitumen is about 10% - 12% of the actual oil sands found in Alberta.

Alberta’s proven reserves are estimated at 177 billion barrels.

This comparable to Saudi Arabia.

Oil Sand

World Oil Sands

Alberta Oil Sands

Surface Tar Sand Deposit

Surface Deposits 20% of the Alberta oil sands are

surface deposits. Surface deposits are either exposed

or covered by minimal overburden. In Alberta open-pit mining is used for

extraction Overburden is removed and oil sand

scooped into 400 ton heavy hauler trucks.

Surface Deposits Surface mining leaves toxic tailings

ponds– Acids, benzene, residual bitumen

Land needs to be reclaimed after production ends.

This is about 2.5% of the surface area involved in oil sand production.

Deep Tar Sand Extraction

Deep Deposits 80% of the Alberta & all Venezuelan

oil sands are deep deposits. Alberta: 97.5% of oil sand surface

area. Oil must be produced by in-situ

extraction. Cold Heavy Oil Production with Sand

(CHOPS). Cyclic Steam Stimulation (CSS). Steam Assisted Gravity Drainage

(SAGD).

Cold Heavy Oil Production with Sand

Cyclic Steam Stimulation

Steam Assisted Gravity Drainage

Downside The first step of tar sand extraction is

estimated to result in gasoline that carries a burden of "at least five times more carbon dioxide" than would conventional "sweet crude" oil production.

Large amounts of land need to be reclaimed after production ends.

Large amount of water used Surface mining SAGD

Should production from oil sands be encouraged?

A. YesB. No

Yes No

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Keystone XL Pipeline Canada is largest oil importer to US > 1 MBbls/day Transported by railroad

– Canadian National– BNSF

Keystone XL would transport 500,000 – 700,000 Bbls/day

Should Keystone XL pipeline be built?

A. YesB. No

Yes No

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Do you prefer oil transportation by pipeline or

by rail/truck?A. PipelineB. Rail/truck

Pipeline

Rail/truck

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Oil Shale Oil shale is a combination of the rock

shale (very fine grained) and the solid petroleum product kerogen

When kerogen is heated to 800F it breaks down into a liquid similar to crude oil.

Total world resources of oil shale are conservatively estimated at 2.6 trillion barrels.  (unproven reserves)

Good shale produces 25-35 gallons (0.6 barrels) of shale oil per ton of rock processed.

Even modest production requires processing a lot of rock.

Estimates of 500-1,000 billion barrels in US alone. (More than Saudi Arabia).

Oil Shale Reserves in US

World Oil Sands Reserves

Shale Oil Pyrolysis

US Average Rainfall

Production requires a lot of people and water. Both are rare in the regions of the deposits.

What do you do with the left over rocks?

Oi Shale Video

Should we develop oil shale deposits in the US?

A. YesB. No

Yes No

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