The Oil Sands Explained ... in 10 minutes
Alberta’s oil sands is the world’s third largest oil reserves, and a huge part of Canada's economy, generating billions annually in government taxes, revenues and royalties, supporting small and medium-sized businesses from coast to coast, and attracting hundreds of thousands of workers from across the country.
But how much do you know about the oil sands?
Timestamps:
0:00 Intro
0:50 Geological formation
1:15 Oil sands reserves
1:41 Deposit geology
2:00 Properties of bitumen
2:42 Getting oil from the oil sands
2:56 Extraction methods - in-situ vs mining
3:09 In-situ extraction
3:57 Surface mining
5:28 Bitumen upgrading
6:42 Production volumes - diluted bitumen vs synthetic crude
7:10 Buyers of oil sands crude - Canada vs USA
8:07 Export pipelines
9:24 Oil prices explained
10:13 GHG emissions from the oil sands
11:31 Outro
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I always like how people have to post negative comments about the oil sands. But all of these people use oil and gas every day in their lives and no nothing about the history of mankind. oil and gas has changed the lives of basically everybody on earth for the good.People live longer and better lives because of oil and gas.
They have over 170,000 sites that they are obligated to fill and reseed. They are not fulfilling their obligations is the main issue.
You are absolutely correct. The hypocrisy of the anti oil sands activists is astounding.
They've taken us this far. Can't be so bad.
yeah, thanks for asbestos too.
Asbestos is a product my mom’s boyfriend was involved with in shipping for a decade they use to play with it all the time like snowballs etc, he’s turning 93 this July 4th he did smoke for 50 yrs to maybe that saved him.
Proud Canadian proud of the oil sands!
I worked at Suncor and Syncrude in the mid 1980's. The companies were great to work for but Ft McFlrurry (I call it that since we had snow in August) was pretty isolated and not too many ladies to date for single guys. Lot's of hunting/fishing/ORV trails though. I worked at petrochemical plants and a refinery also over the years and retired in 2015 due to our polypropylene plant closing due to reduction in feed stock due to our supplier switching to nat gas as a feed stock vs crude oil. While at Suncor (Syncrude was down due to a large fire at the fluid coker) I was unloading bitumen from trucks as the mine at Syncrude was still operational and Suncor could process more than it could extract in the winter. The temperature got close to -60 F one night. I could only stay outside for about 10 minutes at a time. One operator bought a brand new GM auto with the cold weather package and even with the battery and block heaters plugged in it would not start. Three of the younger operators where I worked for the last 25 years went to the Koch oil refinery in Minnesota and one of them worked in the cokers. I think they refined synthetic crude from Alberta there. I had worked in the cokers at Suncor.
I worked on the original Keystone pipeline a few years ago. A great experience! 😗
Having run this crude as a refinery operator, I can attest to the large water and sludge content. This stuff would cause havoc to our desalters. Interesting finding out how it gets extracted. Thank you 🙋🏼
Ive worked at majority of the facilities mentioned so this is a really cool video and is super informative.
Syncrude sweet blend was of the highest quality feed refineries can get. Can't speak of the others, as they received heavy (dil bit) oil that needed to be cracked and sweetened yet.
Fantastic high-level video. Thanks for the hard work put in developing this 😊
Really well done, thank you!
That was AWESOME!! So very well done. I actually understood everything. The use of emojis was spot on. Very well done!
Excellent presentation. Informative and well-presented.
Oil has to stay above $80 us a barrel and a ton of money has to be investigated for Canada to get rich of it. The new pipeline, next to the 1 that's been around 80 years to the Pacific ocean is a good idea. It really is 6 months of absolute freezing cold up there, moving some dirt around isn't going to wreak the planet.
Brilliant presentation
Hi Anna, My buddy, Choate, worked on the refinery cracking units near Port Arthur, Texas. Last I heard, they were slow to get a pipeline down there.
EXCELLENT Presentation. I knew some of what is done in the Processing of these Oil Sands. I was amazed as to how much Oil is thought to be locked into these Sands.
Interesting and informative, thank you.
Quality, very informative, thank you.
Great video!
Very interesting thanks for the video!
Excellent content!
Really well done! I liked it Very much. Thank you!!
Thanks for sharing this very professional presentation and the very best of luck!
Muy completo. Saludo desde Colombia. Gracias.
Very informative
Great video thanks 😊
I've spent a lot of time in Ft. Mcmurray doing catalyst change outs on the Cat Crackers at, I think, Syncrude. I remember being there once in February and one day the temperature got up to 40 degrees below zero!
Lol and? I build homes in that weather every winter 😂😂😂 whats your point!? Its Canada its normal
I work in that shit all the time, last winter the thermostat stuck open in my truck while driving home. Truck ran fine but made zero heat, I drove as long as I could while scrapping frost off the inside of windshield but was too dangerous so I had to pull over and call a tow truck. I've never been so cold in my entire life and there was fuck all I could about it. Waited an hr in - 55, in a running truck. It was a really odd feeling knowing if the tow truck didn't come I'd freeze to death while my truck sat on a approach idling fine. The shit people do in this country for money just to hand most of it over to a spineless government is mind boggling.
I hafta add that it took four phone calls to find someone that wasn't a selfish prick and willing to come get me. Two of them were willing to leave me there just because I chose to not have a credit card anymore. That's our country now. PATHETIC
@11:27, the carbon stored is only the carbon produced as result of production correct? So about 10% of the CO2 production from Well to Wheel is scheduled to be stored? The other 90% is the end user's responsibility?
Great explainer, but it's really strange to see no mention of the huge pollution caused by tar sands. No, i am not talking about the air emissions mentioned here. Really cute to hear about the "totally clean bitumen"!
The costs of combating you "activists" could be used to develop cleaner technologies but no you people need to make yourself feel as if you made a difference in this world. There are actual real ways to make yourself useful but adding costs to inevitable projects is far from actually making a difference in this world.
She said it's 15% of Canada's emissions. Work on those listening skills.
If we could rid ourselves of Trudeau, and unleash oil and gas, Canadians would be the wealthiest people in the world.
Great video. I'd love to know what type of plants and vegetation grows on top of Oil Sands. What was/is the surrounding natural environment like? Species found there?
Nothing is found there now. Do a search here on you tube......just a big toxic scar getting near 2 million acres in size
@@paulchristensen2854 Thanks Paul
Lots of trees bushes, blueberries
The richest deposits are like tar pits... little grows over it, like a waste land of oily muskeg. Boreal forest, and muskeg. Recovered strip mines are returned to boreal forest and wet lands. The emissions from the upgraders and mines have been reduced by over 90% in the past 25 years. Greenies would rather pay blood money for foreign oil than our own crude. So much for virtues.
You would never know that there is bitumen just by looking, in some waterbodys you will see a rainbow sheen, but other then that it just looks like normal forests an wetlands. A 100 years ago, you could fine at surface level, the natives used it to waterproof canoes an other things.
Very informative thank you 🙏
Good video.
wow! good vid!
As has been said in previous comments- Excellent presentation. I knew nothing about the processes involved, but thanks to you, I have learned quite a bit. Many years ago, there was an attempt to develop the oil sands at Setchey in Norfolk, UK, not very far from my home but it was later abandoned. Having seen the processing equipment that would be needed, it would have been uneconomic. The huge reserves in Alberta make all the difference.
Meanwhile coal is getting passed by solar next year. This oil should stay in the ground.
@@echoeversky Then what should we make plastics from? How do you make a computer without oil products. How do you lubricate the wheels of your electric car or insulate the battery and wiring? Wood?
@@echoeversky The global energy consumption charts for 2022 consistently show energy produced by coal is still close to 10 times that produced by solar. Or are you talking about one specific country?
Exceptionally well done.
Would it be possible to use SMRs for process heat in all this and reduce CO2 emissions?
They tried to do that years ago (Bruce Power was going to build a CANDU reactor nearby), but activists shut that down. Projects are being built that will capture nearly all the CO2 produced in the production process, but I agree that having nuclear there to provide process heat and power would be very useful. It's just a shame that those American oil funded activists keep blocking nuclear development here 🤷♀
The new DRUbit product from Hardesty goes by my place daily on the CPKC, heading to Louisiana.
Yo dawg heard you liked bitumen
At the rate climate change is hitting Canadian forests, it is unlikely there will still be an extractive industry for internal combustion. But, asphalt for roadways will still be in demand.
there are not enough resources on the planet for all of us to drive an electric car.
Well produced video.
What are your thoughts on EOR, carbon capture and the misnomer “net zero”..I ❤ oil sands
That was dope.
Impressive 🎉
Awesome
Can sand be used for construction after bitumen is removed?
No, they say it is contaminated by heavy metals. There was a failed plant set up to extract those metals years back. Sand is mixed with water and pumped into ponds where it is scaped, capped and re planted.
Really good video, keep it up.
Very interesting about the oil sands and the Alberta it is a big operation in Canada there will be a lot of professional jobs going and labouring jobs going it's a place that I like to go and have a look at fort McMurray a very interesting region
Thank you...
Are the oil sands after the bitumen is harvested "clean" what happens to it?
Intriguing
Cool!
Geez the smilie face emoji was classic
We need to get some more ladies into these oils sand jobs. Pretty sure the male to female ratio in Alberta is way off.
The oil sands carbon emissions are needed by the vast softwood lumber trees in Canada for robust growth.
8:31 Hello, a correction: Chicago Illinois is not in Indiana 💫
Cool video
... how does it work?
I worked kearl lake, cold lake, the lakes, shell. , shell Scottford, fox creek, in alberta ,
Doesnt anybody see the flaw here... Its like asking Apple to review its own product! Video is good, but many downsides were just quickly brushed away or simply left out!
Not what I expected. The environmental impact/ cost analysis/employment potential is what I was looking for 🤔
We will never hear that from the Canadian government let alone any government.
As most of it is an open pit mine, that is self explanatory as all open pit mines aren't the greatest but these oil sands companies do reclaim the land they dig up into near perfect condition of which they found it. It generates massive, massive profit for Canada and it employs people from all around the country. Hundreds of companies with thousands of employees.
other than the emissions that all oil production has there is Zero long term environmental impact. The top soil is removed and stockpiled then the oil sand is dug up the oil stripped from the sand, the sand is then put back free of oil the top soil replaced and native fauna planted. In some areas the environment is better off afterwards. In the muskeg river area the Oil sand is literally right a the surface under 6" top soil. All the standing water in the bush is contaminated as is the ground water. After mining all this removed and the environment is much healthier.
Can anyone explain to me how do you observe 200 million years?
Did you know, the Oil Sands supplied the allies (including Russia) all their fuel needs during WW2!
No, because Ernest Manning was in power when the first plant was built in 1967.
So why doesn't Canada invest in refineries with upgraders?
There's a bunch of em but not enough. Corruption is the reason, massive corruption. I'd explain but it's way too much typing. Start by looking into Paul martin(former prime Minister, current dirtbag) and his fancy boats that haul Arab oil to Eastern Canada.
Gonna need this to power ur Tesla!😅😅
No mention of Tailing Ponds ?
you didnt watch the video then.
Canada exports 4 million barrels of oil a day to the US. The US exports 800K barrels a day to Canada. Nice gig that.....buy Canadian oil at at WCS ,then sell back to the original country at WTI prices plus pipeline fees.....sweet
They're different grades of oils. Try putting heavy engine oil in your fuel tank, good luck. Or diesel in your sump.
@@stevecadman137 ?....*!......is English your second language.If yes I suggest that enrolling yourself in an ESL course is in order. If not then you need to go back and finish grade school
@@paulchristensen2854 Really? Seriously? Snowflake much? What is your problem? I didn't say anything offensive, just gave a bit of information and you react like that? And please, correct my grammar and spelling. This will be interesting.
@@stevecadman137 Dude went to university so he's better than everyone.
@@bobbyboucher5309 What happened here?
great job greening the dirtiest way to extract oil ever
@NSA, add johnnoname6814 to the FEMA detention list.
Agree. On the bright side, best way to make asphalt!
Let me sum up 17 years of the oil patch. The only positive they can actually state is $$$ its hell on the local communities as its a boom and bust cycle that only bankruptcy trusties will win in the end. It is far better to get Alberta and Sask to get into other industries far from carbon.
You’re a putz.
It's unfortunate that companies have been investing heavily in pipeline capacity and not in upgrading/refining capacity. Given that it takes approximately the same amount of time to bring either project online (apx 10 years) the economic benefits of increased refining capacity in country seem like a no brainier.
I remember a couple of talking points about the oil sands I heard YEARS ago... The oil sands mines cover and area about the same size as greater Toronto. There is a reclamation plan in place (and continuously ongoing) for the oil sands to re-plant the whole area and return it to its pre-extraction condition......There is no plan in place to do the same for Toronto. If aliens from outer space landed in Fort McMurray they would probably comment that these earth people sure go out of their way to clean up a little oil from the ground!!!
Like on Vancouver Island where they will protest mining, but don't see any problem with stripping the trees off a mountain and blasting it away to build sprawling suburbia! At least mines get reclaimed!
@@MOTOMINING and where on V.I. did you see that???? The only place that can afford to "blast off a mountain" to build suburbia is in Victoria !!! And that's ALL solid rock to begin with....any trees that grew on that were mercifully put out of their misery! And as far as mines getting reclaimed....only the profitable/successful ones do...maybe....the rest being the majority are abandoned and do environmental damage for decades.....taxpayers end up picking up the tab.....Britannia Mines on Howe Sound is a very old example...a more recent one is the copper mine on Mt Washington that killed the Tsolum River....despite local efforts for years and YEARS it's still DEAD... Nothing is black and white, fella.....it's ALL varying shades of GREY
@@MOTOMINING Who is gonna foot the estimated 160 billion dollar bill for cleaning up the tar sands? Hint the companies won't pay all of it if any
@@paulchristensen2854comes out of the operating budget of the mine. Go there yourself and see how the operators ARE recovering the land, out of their pocket. All you need is a gov't that will get out of the way to develop it, then keep up the pressure to drive improvements, instead of shutting it down.
How does the dilutent make it back to Alberta
The refinery in Edmonton pumps it back, through pipelines, to our storage tanks.
i have never fallen asleep this fast when watching a youtube video
I think it’s funny how the first benefit they mentioned was tax revenue
Gotta justify it some how
She never mentions that environmentally the tar-sands project is one of dirtiest and most destructive operations on the planet, leaving a devastated, poisoned landscape in its wake.
@@markj7612 Not in the script......only "sunny ways and promises of prosperity for all" from the tar sands are advertised. For most it is out of sight out of mind
Gotta generate taxes for government programs somehow. For Canada that's through resource development. We can't all be office workers.
@@northernmetalworker Here is some reading for you Oil and gas, including extraction and support activities, petroleum refining, pipeline transportation and natural gas distribution, account for 7.5% of national GDP. Oil and gas extraction occurs primarily in Alberta, with the province accounting for 74% of Canadian oil and gas extraction in 2019. Energy in Canada: A Statistical Overview - Ivey Business School
I like oil, oil makes my van go voom.
So, you are saying that Canada has no way to build complex refinery?
I had that thought too. But I think the issue is more, why build a complex refinery, when they already exist? It's cheaper to build a pipeline and just sell it to the existing refineries in the US. I've no doubt that Canada could build a complex refinery, but does it make economic sense?
A refinery does not make any returns for 5 to 7 years, so people don't like to invest in them. The newest refinery NWR has been running for 6 years and has not turned a profit yet.
It's called greed.
We have a ton of complex refineries here in Edmonton (that have enough capacity to supply Alberta and a lot of Western Canada). It's stupid to refine it here, because it's way easier and cheaper to transport upgraded oil than hundreds of other derived products. That would make the problem caused by a lack of pipelines even worse. We need more pipelines to the coast.
CO2 is plant food. Solar energy in long term storage locations and medium.
Everything in science is a matter of amount. We are making too much. However to make an atmosphere on Mars we would pump as much as we could make for hundreds of years.
And It should stay there. Tony Seba was right.
Oil is a mineral.
Great video!!!! Considering that Canada is only 1.5 of all global emissions of C02 and the oil sands is 15% of that, those who are concerned about Co2 should focus their ignorance elsewhere, as they use the 1000s of items in their lives to survive and be comfortable!! The young and old alike have forgotten that it wasn’t long ago that people spent the vast majority of time just surviving day to day without all the advances due to the cheap and reliable goods and services fossil fuels provide! Those who consume and enjoy life often forget what it takes to live the very life they take for granted! The oil sands are a blessing, the heat, electricity and all the items produced by the many byproducts of petroleum are wonderful! The world will not end due to fossil fuel use, but millions if not billions will suffer greatly and die without the benefit of cheap reliable energy! Thank God for this resource and all those who work hard and invest billions to keep our families warm and comfortable in a harsh world!!!!
Yeah but it's also causing global warming so we're killing ourselves to live so to speak. we now have other viable technologies that we need to transition to and not be blind to all the downside to our addiction to oil.
Now that you've whet my appetite for knowledge about the industry, please tell me that you are planning on making more videos?
Electrolysis of Salt Water to make hydrogen gas and oxygen gas using excess solar and wind power 😮.
I drive mining truck at Suncor oil sand site
Love the oilsands and canadian oil and gas. Canada needs its energy industry in the worst way.
So lets get rid of the oil sands and actually bring the energy industry to actually bringing in a commodity that can be used instead of paying over prices on the oil and gas that canada apparently owns but has to pay texas for and american companies for 😂😂😂
Lots of indigenous communities benefit from the oil and gas industry. The indigenous people who sue the energy companies only counts a minor portions of the entire indigenous populations
First nation cancer rates down stream from Ft Mac are much higher. The deformed fish found in the river down stream are another thing seldom mentioned.
@@paulchristensen2854 I understand those issues. Nothing is free. It's a yes or no question. If you want economic developments, then environment will be disturbed someway from small or large. If you want better environment, then, it's another way around.
@@paulchristensen2854 Lets ignore the fact that the Athabasca River cuts directly through these tar sands and assume none of this leeches into the river naturally as it carves a path through it.
@@Tek0nn lol...your weak attempt at deflection/obfuscation only highlights the fact that down stream from Ft Mac has higher rate of cancer in the indigenous communities and the only deformed fish in the river. Nice try son
@@paulchristensen2854 if you saw how bad the people in those communities eat (lots of grease and junk food in their daily diets) and the high rates of cigarette smoking amongst the members, no wonder many are getting cancer. I am First Nations myself, so you can't claim I'm being racist, either. I see the exact same problem on my own community, and it's nowhere near any oilsands site.
There is a lot more recoverable oil in Alberta than 161 billion barrels. That said, looming like an odious spectre over Alberta's energy future (and its future overall well-being) is Canada's federal government, representing the views and interests of Ontario and Quebec. This federal government is historically hostile to Alberta, and the most that Alberta can hope from Canada's federal government is that it will be largely left alone.
This area has the Hugoton gas field when depleted could hold all the US sequestered CO2 The Hugoton Panhandle gas field, in parts of Kansas, Texas, and Oklahoma, is an area of almost 8,500 sq miles and contains one of the world's largest known gas reserves.
Mmmm, I thought Canada uses solar and wind energy...
GREAT
Wer is. Pipe line welder hir. Can mi help
Drop a fresh bucket load on trud-eau so mr.dress up enjoy the tar sand.
Very informative about the ashpalt. But why does it melt under the very hot sun?. 😂
So in a nutshell...the sand in those area's is already contaminated by mother nature, we are cleaning it up by removing the oil from the sand. I wish everyone could grasp that concept.
Nailed it. The incredible irony is if this was a human spill, the greenies would be losing their minds and demanding we clean it up.
They are cleaning the sand and reclaimed the land afterwards
the video is 12 min not 10 min
If thiers so much oil here in Alberta how come thier isn't some kind of Chinese ghost city here in Alberta.
Bitumen almost sounds like Vegemite… ok not really, just sounds cool. This would make good road asphalt or so it seems to me. What do I know. Odd that I almost went to the sands for work but now work in Kuwait. Nope, not in oil but electronics. Time to sleep.
Most of even the known, recoverable reserves will never be mined. Be aware, it's twilight for this industry.
8:40. Chicago is not in Indiana. 👋
It’s close though lol
Tar Sands. (Edit: And there is no oil there like the video keeps talking about. This is not Saudi Arabia What the Tar Sands have is called crude bitumen.)
That is made into oil. Tar sands advantage is it never runs out. It will be here when the easy oil runs out.
@@Crashed131963 Oil will always be there. Re entries all over Alberta prove it.
In other words oil sand doesn't produce very much gasoline, you get sludgey bunker C oil which is good for fueling electricity powerplants.
You're aware that cracking hydrocarbons is a thing right? You can easily make stuff like ethylene or propylene from whatever heavy sludge molecule you want and use it for plastics, fuel or whatever you like. Not that I am a fan of oil especially not oil sands in Canada, one of the worlds most beautiful and pristine northern wonders of nature now being dug up and destroyed, flooded with trillions of liters of wastewater rotting away in separation pools seeping everywhere... Anyway, sludge from oil sands produce as much fuel as u want or plastics or whatever but the amount of water and energy used for its extraction and refinement is ridiculous. George W. Bush Junior and his instable middle east, the separation of Russia and China's hunger for oil exploded global prices so much, it only became viable to extract sand oil in the early 2000s
@@jonasduell9953yep we're addicted to oil and if you drive gas powered vehicle you're participating. We will ultimately transition away from the age of oil but it's going to take awhile
@@jonasduell9953 Just what we need, more plastics into the environment. Humans are eagerly killing themselves, it's pretty sad.
I rarely drive my DIESEL! powered car, I prefer my non-electric bike. EVs and Li-NMC battery technology is a shitshow resembling the 1950s nuclear everything revolution. Can't recycle anything, pull out a bit of copper anode and aluminium cathode foils at best, the glass/ceramic coated plastic separator, the highly toxic lithium-hexafluorophosphate electrolyte and both, li-graphite anode and nickel-manganese-cobalt dust (nicely carcinogenic) cathode cannot be recycled to this day. All we do is collect and store in plastic bins and leave the toxic waste for our children to deal with. Plus, a ICE will last several decades with a bit of care, an EV needs a new toxic waste battery every few years or x charge cycles and the faster you charge the faster they degrade. There is also the fire hazard thing, electronic doorlocks + battery that burns so hot it will ignite your aluminium and magnesium alloy frames/wheels within a few minutes and it can't be extinguished. Throwing water at it will just release hydroflouric acid vapor that will happily eat your mucus membranes and lungs. There are plenty of EV fires on a daily basis in China for example, YT will easily provide what the CCP tries to swipe under the rug. Where does your electricity even come from anyway? Unless humanity goes full nuclear/renewables mix you literally just move the issue of fossil fuels out of your view causing more harm to the environment while still remotely polluting. And here's my biggest point: I am hoping my not too old diesel will run long enough until Hydrogen vehicles become an option because any other currently promoted "solution" is not a solution and H2 will take some time thanks to the EV craze. Wasting more energy for an EV that is fueled by a mix of fossil/renewable and basically replaces a gas tank with toxic waste while trashing an already built and working car would just be a waste. Anyway, I don't want to blame anyone or promote anything here, just making a point that smug EV drivers cause more harm than good. The plastics in the oceans mostly stem from 3rd world and developing countries with no or insufficient waste management and gets taken there by polluted rivers or corrupt companies dumping in the oceans yet we do not ban sale of plastic bottles in said countries or name, shame and boycott Nestle, Coca Cola, Pepsico... you name it for promoting and selling throwaway bottles. They should be held accountable globally for proper disposal networks in whatever countrie's market they want to operate. And about humans killing themselves: I couldn't care less about humans and all we face is an immune reaction of nature/the earth to our presence. We just don't deserve our planet I guess... Edit: I know all that Li-NMC battery stuff because I worked in the industry for 2 years.
@@jonasduell9953 Glad you have a positive outlook on the future 😫 But on an even more positive note lithium ion battery technology is evolving substantially so is the science of recycling them. I don't know when you were involved in the industry but I'm sure it's changed a lot since then. I do agree that humanity is in a precarious time in our history right now. Our future hangs in the balance. It would be good for humanity to understand the earth could eliminate us quite easily...... It's happened before