The Canadian Tar Sands
Canada is the USA’s largest supplier of oil and the world’s second largest supplier of oil outside of Saudi Arabia. The majority of this oil comes from ‘tar sands’. Canada is an increasingly important source of oil for the US because it is not only a reliable supply but the country itself is politically preferable to the US.
Tar sands are made up of a naturally occurring mixture of sand, clay, water and bitumen. It is considered a low grade oil reserve. Canada’s tar sands represents a shift from traditional to nontraditional oil reserves. Bitumen is known as a frontier hydrocarbon. Oils sands exploitation is driven by high oil prices and increased oil demands.
Bitumen is extracted by opencast mining, however new technology has led to a new procedure of drills burrowing down to oil sands which can be around 500 m below the surface of the ground. Steam is then pumped into liquefy the oil which is pumped to the surface. This new technique is said to reduce scarring on the land and should results in fewer ‘toxic lakes’. Alberta is now Canada’s own petrostate.
Tar sands represents the largest extraction project in the world. The process is very energy intensive as it takes up to 5 barrels of water to produce 1 barrel of oil and 1 barrel of oil to produce 3 barrels of crude oil from tar sands. There is an estimated 160+ billion barrels lying beneath Alberta’s soil.
Environmental Impacts
The oil sands operations (as of Aug 2016) emits an average of 70 megatonnes of GHGs per year. 140 sq km of lakes filled with toxic lakes of which 1 in 160 litres leech out into the surrounding environment causing chemical mixing.
"Alberta is now Canada’s own petrostate."
"The oil sands operations (as of Aug 2016) emits an average of 70 megatonnes of GHGs per year."