The Oil Drum

I have been musing, over the weekend, a little more about the problem about what you consider a reserve. And, just being mischievous, I got to thinking a little about the Canadian Oil Sands. At the present time a very significant part of the production of the deposit comes from the surface mining of the sand. As I noted in an earlier post , the relatively simple way of getting the bitumen from the sand, merely requires breaking the material into individual grains as it is carried, in a hot water pipeline, to the initial refinery. The first stop along the way is a rather large tank, where the clean sand sinks to the bottom, while the bitumen is taken from the top to be treated.

Now the point is this, that process is relatively simple and does not cost huge amounts of energy (and the water is recycled). Virtually all the oil in the deposit is recovered, and the sand is dropped into ponds where, after the water is drained away, it can be covered with the original top cover, and restored to its original condition. Except only that the bitumen is gone, and it won't get your feet dirty if you walk in the streams.

Grin, well now that I have several folks blood a little warmer, let me get to my point.