Canada's Oil Sands - Centre for Energy

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Section 1 Resources Beyond Belief As new sources of conventional crude oil become more difficult and expensive to find and produce, substantial investments are being made to develop the oil sands bitumen resources of Western Canada. Thick and sticky, like blackstrap molasses, oil sands bitumen is more difficult to recover, process and transport. Yet the oil sands in northern Alberta have become a major part of North American energy production and are expected to become much more important in the decades ahead. 2 CANADA'S OIL SANDS THIRD edition november 2011
As of July 2011, there were 92 active mining, in-situ, primary and experimental oil sands projects in Alberta. The Alberta Energy Resources Conservation Board reports that production in 2010 averaged more than 1.6 million barrels per day, which represents about 1.9 per cent of world oil supply – and more projects are proposed or under construction. ERCB estimates that production could average almost 3.5 million barrels per day by 2020 if all the current and proposed projects go ahead. This would be equivalent to about 14.1 per cent of the North American daily oil consumption in 2010 (2.2 million barrels in Canada, 19.2 million barrels in the United States, 2.1 million barrels in Mexico and 1.2 million barrels elsewhere in North America.) Canada also produced 424,576 barrels of conventional heavy oil per day in 2010. Upgraded and non-upgraded bitumen and conventional heavy oil thus accounted for more than half of Canada’s crude oil production. Without this production, Canada would have been a net importer of crude oil. With it, Canada had a substantial positive energy trade balance of $50.2 billion (including natural gas and coal as well as oil) and was the largest single supplier of crude oil to the United States. Although Canada is a net oil exporter, it imported approximately 778,016 million barrels of crude oil per day in 2010. Many factors have converged to make the Alberta oil sands such an important resource in the 21st century: • Experience gained through more than a century of research and four decades of commercial production • Continuing development of technologies to reduce costs and environmental impacts • High demand, and therefore high prices, for crude oil and refined petroleum products • Taxes and royalties that are adapted to the high capital costs and long lead times of oil sands development • An infrastructure of roads, pipelines and electrical power lines • Managerial talent, technical expertise and skilled labour • Scientific research to address the many issues arising from development and improve development processes • Regulatory and consultative processes to facilitate sustainable development of both renewable and non-renewable resources Oil sands development has created many opportunities: • A large new source of petroleum to meet North American and global demand • Employment for Albertans and other Canadians • Revenues for energy companies and governments • Economic benefits for Aboriginal people and other residents of northeastern Alberta • Investments in education, training, scientific research and technological development But there are also challenges arising from development: • Greenhouse gases and other air emissions, water use and land disturbance • Consumption of natural gas to extract and upgrade bitumen • Strain on infrastructure and labour markets due to rapid growth • Inflation and delays due to high demand for crucial goods and services • Effects on Aboriginal communities and traditional land uses CANADA’S OIL SANDS THIRD edition November 2011 3
Page 1 and 2: Canada’s Oil Sands Third Edition
Page 3: Contents Section 1: RESOURCES BEYON
Page 7 and 8: The continental and global context
Page 9 and 10: Challenges The economic, environmen
Page 11 and 12: To this end, the Alberta government
Page 13 and 14: Mining shovels dig into sand and lo
Page 15 and 16: In-situ bitumen More than 80 per ce
Page 17 and 18: Firefloods There has been some prod
Page 19 and 20: Co-generation is the simultaneous p
Page 21 and 22: gross sales revenues on all product
Page 23 and 24: Section 3 Towards Sustainable Devel
Page 25 and 26: light of achieving Alberta’s long
Page 27 and 28: The industry-funded, multi-stakehol
Page 29 and 30: dioxide in areas close to the oil s
Page 31 and 32: oil sands area, and industry has ma
Page 33 and 34: The path ahead North Americans have
Page 35 and 36: Mitchell, Robert; Brad Anderson, Ma
Page 37 and 38: Key definitions Hydrocarbons are co

Canada's Oil Sands - Centre for Energy

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