11/7/2016 Alberta Energy: What is Oil Sands?

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What is Oil Sands?
Alberta’s oil reserves play an important role in
the Canadian and global economy, supplying
stable, reliable energy to the world. Alberta's
oil sands have been described by Time
Magazine as "Canada's greatest buried energy
treasure." But what is oil sand exactly?

Oil sand is a naturally occurring mixture of

sand, clay or other minerals, water and
bitumen, which is a heavy and extremely
viscous oil that must be treated before it can
be used by refineries to produce usable fuels
such as gasoline and diesel. Bitumen is so
viscous that at room temperature it acts much
like cold molasses. New technologies are
increasing the treatment methods available to
oil sands producers as more research is
completed.

Oil sand can be found in several locations

around the globe, including Venezuela, the
United States and Russia, but the Athabasca
deposit in Alberta is the largest, most
developed and utilizes the most technologically advanced production processes.

Historically, oil sand was incorrectly referred to as tar sand due to the now outdated and largely ineffective practice
of using it for roofing and paving tar (oil sand will not harden suitably for these purposes). Though they appear to
be visibly similar, tar and oil sands are different;

Oil sand is a naturally occurring petrochemical that can be upgraded into crude oil and other petroleum
products.
Tar is synthetically produced from coal, wood, petroleum or peat through destructive distillation, it is
generally used to seal against moisture.

History
The earliest documented oil sands mining operation was set up in 1745 in northeastern France, with refining
capabilities added in 1857.

In 1929, the Dominion of Canada issued a patent to Dr. Karl A. Clark for the hot-water extraction process for
separating bitumen from oil sands. This process laid the groundwork for the large-scale methods used by today’s
producers of Canadian oil sands. Read more.

Related Resources

http://www.energy.gov.ab.ca/oilsands/793.asp 1/2
11/7/2016 Alberta Energy: What is Oil Sands?

Oil Sands 101, a step by step process

Starting an oil sands operation

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