Alberta oil sands mining projects actually cleaning up worlds largest oil spill, entirely natural:
Allan MacRae says:
May 7, 2016 at 5:11 am
I have used everyday terms for the above post.
For the record, I have two engineering degrees and in a past life participated in several committees for Syncrude Canada Ltd. – then the largest oilsands project on the planet. I chaired the Mining Committee and the Technical Committee, among others, and sat on several more including the Management Committee.
As Manager of Oilsands, I also had one other large mining project (OSLO) and one in-situ project (PCEJ).
The Athabasca oilsands are a natural deposit of bituminous Cretaceous sands that outcrop at Fort McMurray and are bisected by the Athabasca River, and have eroded into the river for millennia.
The surface mining projects are actually cleaning up one of the world’s largest natural oil spills.
Farther from the river, the oilsands are more deeply buried and so in-situ technology (typically SAGD) is used to recover the bitumen.
It is truly regrettable that so many uninformed people choose to slag Athabasca oilsands projects, based on their woeful ignorance about science, technology and economics.
The oilsands have been the primary economic engine of the Alberta and Canadian economies for several decades, and through transfer payments and jobs have financially supported all of Canada.
The total transfer payments from Alberta to the rest of Canada total about 1 million dollars per Alberta family of four (with nominal interest) over the past ~50 years.
All this from a town of less than 100,000 hardworking, decent people – people who are now burned out of their homes due to the incompetence of our governments and their pandering to a gang of phony green fanatics.
Regards to all, Allan |
