Oil Sand is the sediments or sedimentary rocks composed of sand, clay minerals, water, and bitumen that contains heavy hydrocarbon residues such as tar or asphalt. These materials can be extracted by steam injection to deep below the surface of the earth for the pumping the bitumen to the surface. (Refer to the Bituminous Sand)
Reference Definition by Ucsusa.org: Tar sands (Also, known as Oil Sands) are a mixture of mostly sand, clay, water, and a thick, molasses-like substance called bitumen. Bitumen is made of hydrocarbons, the same molecules in liquid oil, and is used to produce gasoline and other petroleum products.
Related Definitions in the Project: The Project; Plant and Process Unit
Example Article of the Oil Sand:
Canada's Oil Sands Set for Expansion as Pipeline Nears Completion (Source: Oil Price on 6 January 2024): By Tsvetana Paraskova - Canada’s oil producers plan higher output for this year and expect to earn more from their heavy crude once the long-delayed expanded Trans Mountain Pipeline enters into service. The start date of the Trans Mountain Pipeline Expansion (TMX) is the key uncertainty this year for the Canadian oil industry, the benchmark Canadian heavy oil prices, and the revenues for the oil-producing province of Alberta. Despite this uncertainty about the additional export capacity from Alberta’s oil sands, some of the biggest Canadian producers plan to boost production in the short to medium term. The top liquids producer, Canadian Natural Resources, for example, announced last month its 2024 capital budget that targets exit 2024 production levels of around 1.455 million barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd), up by around 40,000 boepd from the targeted exit 2023 production levels. The company also targets 2025 average annual production growth of approximately 4% to 5% compared to the 2024 average annual production levels. ...
Canada’s Oil Sands Need $60 Billion To Achieve Net-Zero Emissions (Source: Oil Price on July 2021): By Tsvetana Paraskova - Canada will need as much as US$60 billion (C$75 billion) to make its oil sands operations net-zero emission businesses by 2050, top executives at the biggest oil firms told Bloomberg, adding that the government would need to step up and likely fund up to two-thirds of that cost. Carbon capture and storage is set to make up half of the reductions in emissions, but it may need government support for two-thirds of the cost to implement such projects, as Norway has been doing, Mark Little, president and chief executive officer of Suncor Energy, told Bloomberg in an interview. Alex Pourbaix, CEO of Cenovus Energy, also thinks that the industry cannot make all necessary investments on its own. “I don’t think any of us would ever be in a position to go at this on our own. It’s just too significant an undertaking,” Pourbaix told Bloomberg. Cenovus Energy and Suncor Energy became last month part of a net-zero collaboration initiative of the biggest oil sands producers in Canada aimed at achieving net-zero emissions from oil sands operations by 2050. The initiative includes companies that operate some 90 percent of Canada’s oil sands production—Canadian Natural Resources, Cenovus Energy, Imperial, MEG Energy, and Suncor Energy. ...
Will Canada’s Oil Sands Survive The Green Revolution? (Source: Oil Price on 23 June 2021): By Haley Zaremba - Canada’s climate is heating up at a rate twice as fast as the rest of the world. In order to avoid the worst impacts of climate change, experts have determined that it’s imperative to keep our world from warming more than 2 degrees Celsius over pre-industrial averages, and preferably no more than 1.5 degrees. In northern Canada, annual average temperatures have already increased by approximately 2.3 degrees Celsius. And it’s not just the Canadian arctic that is heating up alarmingly, dangerously fast -- the entire country of Canada has already surpassed the 1.5 degree threshold, having warmed an average of 1.7 Celsius (the equivalent of 3 degrees Fahrenheit). While the entire world is vulnerable to the devastating impacts of climate change, few nations are as urgently under threat as Canada. The country's response to this common enemy, however, has been far from united. In fact, the warming statistics cited in the first paragraph came from a government report that was released in conjunction with carbon taxes to be imposed on four of the nation’s 10 provinces for failing to take action into their own hands and make a plan to curb emissions and combat global warming. ...
