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The Athabasca oil sands, also known as the Athabasca tar sands, are large deposits of oil sands rich in bitumen, a heavy and viscous form of petroleum, in northeastern Alberta, Canada. These reserves are one of the largest sources of unconventional oil in the world, making Canada a significant player in the global energy market. [27]
In 2003, the oil shale development program was initiated in the United States, and in 2005, the commercial leasing program for oil shale and tar sands was introduced. [ 8 ] [ 9 ] As of May 2007, Estonia is actively engaged in exploitation of oil shale on a significant scale and accounts for 70% of the world's processed oil shale. [ 10 ]
The use of either of these forms of resources beyond their rate of replacement is considered to be resource depletion. [1] The value of a resource is a direct result of its availability in nature and the cost of extracting the resource. The more a resource is depleted the more the value of the resource increases. [2]
Oil exudes from joint cracks in the petroliferous shale forming the floor of mine. 1906 photo, U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 321 Tar bubble at La Brea Tar Pits, California A petroleum seep is a place where natural liquid or gaseous hydrocarbons escape to the Earth's atmosphere and surface, normally under low pressure or flow.
Tar sands get a lot of bad press, much of it to do with the fact that the extraction and processing of tar sands bitumen creates a lot more pollution than other fuel sources. A few companies are ...
The Tar Sand Triangle is the largest deposit of oil sands in the United States known today. It contains about 6.3 billion barrels of heavy oil, but is thought to have originally held more. At one point the Tar Sand Triangle could have consisted of 16 billion barrels of heavy oil, almost as much as in Utah today. [3]
Their carbon footprints, however, are radically different: conventional reservoirs use the natural energy in the environment to flow oil and gas to the surface unaided; unconventional reservoirs require putting energy into the ground for extraction, either as heat (e.g. tar sands and oil shales) or as pressure (e.g. shale gas and CBM).
[3] [4] Tar sands facilities were found to be among the top four highest polluters of volatile organic compounds (VOCs)- a major air contaminant. [4] VOCs and other air contaminants are set to increase in the future as a result of continued output from the oil sands. [4] Oil sand pollution is not only set to increase VOCs, but also, acid rain. [5]