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What are oil sand reserves

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05.03.2021

Oil sands are a loose sand deposit which contain a very viscous form of petroleum known as bitumen. These unconsolidated sandstone deposits comprise primarily of sand, clay and water saturated with bitumen. Oil sands are sometimes referred to as tar sands or bituminous sands. Alberta's oil sands has the third largest oil reserves in the world, after Venezuela and Saudi Arabia. Alberta's oil sands’ proven reserves equal about 165.4 billion barrels (bbl). Crude bitumen production (mined and in situ) totalled about 2.8 million barrels per day (bbl/d) in 2017. Oil sands are naturally occurring geologic formations that contain a mixture of water, sand and thick, heavy oil that can be found in many parts of the world. The largest oil sands reserves are located in Canada. With proven oil reserves of 171 billion barrels, Canada stands at the third position in the oil holdings list. Oil sands deposits in the province of Alberta account for more than 95% of the country’s reserves. The province also holds a considerable amount of its conventional oil reserves, while most of its oil exports are sent to the US. Its oil sands are a key contributor to growth in supply of liquid fuel in the world in the past few years. Proven reserves are those quantities of petroleum which, by analysis of geological and engineering data, can be estimated, with a high degree of confidence, to be commercially recoverable from a given date forward from known reservoirs and under current economic conditions. Some statistics on this page are disputed and controversial.

Oil reserves are estimated quantities of crude oil that have a high degree of certainty, usually 90%, of existence and exploitability.

Shallow reserves, which make up about 20 percent of oil sands, are recovered through surface mining, which is mining through open pits [source: Grist].The process of surface mining differs a bit from company to company but generally includes conditioning, separation and froth treatment. Proven reserves are those quantities of petroleum which, by analysis of geological and engineering data, can be estimated, with a high degree of confidence, to be commercially recoverable from a given date forward from known reservoirs and under current economic conditions. Some statistics on this page are disputed and controversial. The Athabasca deposit is the largest known reservoir of crude bitumen in the world and the largest of three major oil sands deposits in Alberta, along with the nearby Peace River and Cold Lake deposits (the latter stretching into Saskatchewan ). The oil sands have long been referred to as tar sands; however, Oil reserves denote the amount of crude oil that can be technically recovered at a cost that is financially feasible at the present price of oil. Hence reserves will change with the price, unlike oil resources, which include all oil that can be technically recovered at any price. Reserves may be for a well, a reservoir, a field, a nation, or the world. Canada’s Oil Industry. Oil is a powerful and versatile source of Canadian energy that will be a part of the global energy mix for decades to come. Canada has about six billion barrels of remaining oil reserves located outside the oil sands, found primarily in Alberta, Saskatchewan and offshore Newfoundland and Labrador. Oil sands, also known as "tar sands," are sediments or sedimentary rocks composed of sand, clay minerals, water, and bitumen. The oil is in the form of bitumen, a very heavy liquid or sticky black solid with a low melting temperature. Bitumen typically makes up about 5 to 15% of the deposit. 1 CDN OIL SANDS RESERVES EST. AT 164 BILLION BBLS (AER ST98 2018 ESTIMATE) 2 EIA ESTIMATES US CRUDE OIL RESERVES AT 39.16 BILLION BBLS AT YEAR-END 2017. 3 OECD COUNTRIES: CANADA, USA, MEXICO, CHILE, TURKEY, ISRAEL, AUSTRALIA, NEW ZEALAND, JAPAN, SOUTH KOREA AND 22 EU COUNTRIES (EXCL.

Alberta's oil sands' proven reserves equal about 165.4 billion barrels (bbl). Crude bitumen production (mined and in situ) totalled about 2.8 million barrels per day ( bbl/d) in 2017. Source: Alberta Energy Regulator 

1 Dec 2012 Oil sands is a term mostly used for the bitumen deposits which is naturally occurring viscous mixture of sand, clay, water and bitumen which is extremely heavy substance. Tar is used for the artificially made substance by the  For full treatment, see heavy oils and tar sands. Deposits of bitumen, like those of other heavy hydrocarbons, are thought to be degraded remnants of accumulations of conventional (light-  Alberta, Canada has one of the largest oil sands deposits in the world. In 2012, the U.S. imported 438 million barrels of oil sands-derived crude oils. This is a 125 % increase from 2005.

Oil sands 101. Canada has more than 10 percent of the world's oil reserves, mostly located in the Alberta oil sands.

25 Apr 2015 The oil sand deposits in Alberta are immense. Current estimates have the reserves of oil found in Alberta second to only Saudi Arabia for oil reserves found in any country in the world. Alberta's Energy Resources Conservation  16 Oct 2019 Still, given the challenges of creating oil out of northern Alberta's sludge-like petroleum deposits—compared to the easy-flowing reserves in Texas or Saudi Arabia—making oil sands a cleaner option will require a sustained 

1 CDN OIL SANDS RESERVES EST. AT 164 BILLION BBLS (AER ST98 2018 ESTIMATE) 2 EIA ESTIMATES US CRUDE OIL RESERVES AT 39.16 BILLION BBLS AT YEAR-END 2017. 3 OECD COUNTRIES: CANADA, USA, MEXICO, CHILE, TURKEY, ISRAEL, AUSTRALIA, NEW ZEALAND, JAPAN, SOUTH KOREA AND 22 EU COUNTRIES (EXCL.

The term is predominantly used in Canada, where over 170 billion barrels of bitumen are estimated to be held by large oil sand deposits in the Athabasca, Cold Lake and Peace River regions of Alberta. Oils from such sands may have a gravity  17 Jan 2008 were deemed economic, Canada, with about 175 billion barrels of proved oil sands reserves, has ranked second behind Saudi Arabia in oil reserves. Canadian crude oil exports were about 1.82 million barrels per day (mbd)