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OIL SANDS
8 meters. The porosity is 28 percent, the
bitumen content about 7.7 percent, and the
geological reserves are estimated to be 10 x 106
tons of bitumen.
Wu Er He tar sands occur in an area of about
20 square kilometers, with a thickness of
10 meters. The porosity of the deposit is
25 percent, the bitumen content is about
7.8 percent, and the geological reserves are
believed to be 1 5 x 1 06
tons.
In total the known geological reserves of bitumen
from tar sands in the Zhun GeEr Basin in Xinjiang
is about 60
x106
tons.
Erlian Basin in Inner-Mongolia Autonomous
Region
The Gilgerantao depression of the Erlian Basin is
located northwest of Xilinhaote City in Inner-
Mongolia Autonomous Region, with an area of
1,000 square kilometers (from east to west,
70 kilometers long, from north to south,
14 kilometers in width). Tar sands reserves have
been found in the eastern and western parts of
the depression, with a total area of about
28 square kilometers.
The tar sand in this depression belongs to the
lower Cretaceous Period. Three layers of tar
sands have been found from the outcrop
to a
burial depth of 200 meters. The total thickness of
the tar sand layers ranges from 4 to 20 meters.
The porosity
of the tar sand is about 27 to
36 percent, its saturation being about 35 to
70 percent, with bitumen content of 9 to
15 percent.
Proven reserves of bitumen in these layers ac
counts for about 20 x 106
tons totally.
Tar Sands and Bitumen Characteristics
The contents of bitumen,
water and solids in
several Chinese tar sands samples were deter
mined by using toluene as extraction agent and
using the modified Dean-Stark Soxhlet extraction
3-19
method. The elemental analysis, group analysis
and distillation range of bitumen extracted were
also determined. The results are listed in Table 1
(next page). Data for Canadian Athabasca tar
sands are also listed for comparison. The
properties of Karamay bitumen are better than
the Erlian bitumen. The atomic ratio of H/C is
1.56, slightly higher than for Athabasca bitumen.
The distillation temperatures are not high. Sulfur
and asphaltene contents are low. This indicates
that Karamay bitumen is somewhat easier to
process into a synfuel than Athabasca bitumen.
Extraction Techniques
It has been found that hot water extraction is not
effective for Erlian tar sands even at a high tem
perature of above 90C. However, it is effective
for Karamay tar sands, and the bitumen recovery
reaches 78 percent at a temperature of 93C.
According to Professor J.L Qian of Petroleum
University in Beijing, the study of Chinese tar
sands reserves and characteristics has just
begun.
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NATURAL BITUMENS OF TIMAN-PECHORA
PROVINCE IN RUSSIA SHOW PROMISE
A paper titled "Perspectives of Natural Bitumens
of the Timan-Pechora Province Development"
was presented by B. Bezrukov of the All-Russian
Petroleum Scientific Research Geological Ex
ploration Institute, St. Petersburg, Russia, at a
conference held in Kazan, Tatarstan in October.
He notes that the major oil and gas develop
ments of the Timan-Pechora Province have taken
place in the territory of the Komi Republic, where
a steady decline in production over the last
10 years has been observed. This problem may
be partially solved by exploitation of new pools or
intensification of production in old areas.
However, Bezrukov says that the development of
the known natural bitumens and heavy oils also
has a great significance because they account
for a considerable part of the total balance of
THE SYNTHETIC FUELS REPORT, JANUARY 1995