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Except for a fraction of the extra-heavy oil or bitumen which can be extracted by conventional oil well technology, oil sands must be produced by strip mining or the oil made to flow into wells using sophisticated in-situ techniques. These methods usually use more water and require larger amounts of energy than conventional oil extraction.
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).
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]
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 ...
However, in-situ processes do involve possible significant environmental costs to aquifers, especially since in-situ methods may require ice-capping or some other form of barrier to restrict the flow of the newly gained oil into the groundwater aquifers. However, after the removal of the freeze wall these methods can still cause groundwater ...
Bitumen also occurs in unconsolidated sandstones known as "oil sands" in Alberta, Canada, and the similar "tar sands" in Utah, US. The Canadian province of Alberta has most of the world's reserves, in three huge deposits covering 142,000 square kilometres (55,000 sq mi), an area larger than England or New York state .
A number of oil companies started researching methods to mining and process the oil shale. In contrast to the boom of the 1920s, which featured hundreds of small startup companies operating on stock sales, the shale research after World War II was a well-financed, long-term effort by established oil companies.
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related to: tar sands use in humans in nature research methods and techniques 4th