The Oil Drum

I was recently in a meeting with some State officials, and representatives of a large fossil energy supply company. The meeting was largely focused on State-centered efforts to increase the amount of renewable or sustainable energy. In the course of the discussion the company representatives raised the issue of water availability, and how this might impact some of the options. It is a subject that is starting to raise its head in more than just this type of discussion. If we look at the current drought status of the United States, for example.

The exceptional drought in the South East and the extreme drought in the South West are both evident. The growing impact of the sustained lack of water, or the need to provide water to an increasing number of people or a growing industrial base, from a fixed resource, is one that will have an impact that goes beyond just the immediate short term. And so, being curious, I looked at the major users of water, and what they did with it. And it was in this light that I then looked at one of the promising new technologies that Dave Rutledge had mentioned at the ASPO conference, the use of concentrated sun power (csp), and in the process I also looked at how they are handling process water in the oil sands of Alberta.

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.

Well, let's see I have put on the helmet, the breast plate, the greaves and all that stuff, and so perhaps I might be armored enough to tip-toe into the debate about oil sands and oil shale. Tonight will be oil sand, if I survive and recover, then (after reading a few more scientific papers) I will tackle oil shale.

Just recently there has been increasing attention paid to the heavy oil sands of Alberta. Perhaps, as in the case of the Washington Post more negative than positive. And it is interesting to note, from the tone of those pieces, that it is now apparently more desirable to have your rivers flow over and through tarry sand, than to have the sand cleaned and replaced, along with the river. But it is not that argument that I would follow, but rather, OGJ having come out with a Supplement on Canadian Oil and Gas, to briefly comment on one or two of the features of that report. (Which apparently will take a while before it appears in the electronic version of the magazine).