<<22 SQUARE KILOMETERS Basin Settling-Tails>>BILLIONS barrels = tens of Billions yards, a yard equals about a ton, & so on and so on and so on! RE READ REFERRED TO MESSAGE POST:
oilsandsdiscovery.com
Top Ten Oil Sands Questions
<<Also check out the Tailings Piles Pictures HERE:>>
memagazine.org
<<..O&K and Syncrude engineers designed the RH400 hydraulic excavator, believed to be the world's largest, to deposit 80 tons of oil sand in a single pass in 28- to 30-second cycle times.
Bitumen floats to the surface within the PSVs and is separated. The sand settles to the bottom of the PSVs and is pumped to tailings oil recovery (TOR) vessels. Much of the bitumen remaining in the sand is removed in the TOR vessels by a proprietary Syncrude technology. The bitumen separated in the TOR vessels returns to the separation vessels to improve its quality. The bitumen froth is then collected and deaerated. Naphtha is added to assist with the removal of the remaining solids and water in second-stage extraction.
Syncrude added an extraction auxiliary production system at the site in 1993. This system takes the crushed oil sand excavated by auxiliary production and sends it to a cyclofeeder, where it is mixed with caustic soda and water. Screens filter out oversize particles before the slurry is piped to the extraction plant, and to the PSVs for processing.
The clay, hydrocarbons, sand, and water that remain after extraction are stored in a settling basin that measures 22 square kilometers. Water is removed and then reused as process water.
Altogether, the company processes 440,000 metric tons of oil sand per day to produce 500,000 barrels of diluted bitumen, representing a recovery rate of over 90 percent of the bitumen contained in the oil sand.
Diluted bitumen leaving the extraction plant enters a
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AND BMD PR <<OLD >>:
birchmountain.com
<<..Our development work remains focused on improving analytical repeatability.
Work continues with oil sands operators in the Fort McMurray area, on data sharing and access to drill core and limestone exposed during oil sands mining operations. When satisfactory analytical methods are developed, intervals in core available to us from the oil sands operators will be tested for precious metal content.
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No, this isn't a section about top ten music hits. Oil sands don't have much of a beat and are very hard to dance to, what with all that oozing and all. This is where we answer the top ten questions that visitors to the Centre have had in the past. Take a look at a couple of these and hopefully our answers will fill you in on what you might want to know about this sticky stuff and why it's so important to Canada.
1. What are the oil sands?
1. A beach where you don't need to apply suntan oil.
2. The ground underneath your car after you do an oil change.
3. A mixture of bitumen, sand, water and clay.
Question One
Q. What are the oil sands?
A: The oil sands are very different from conventional oil and natural gas deposits. In conventional deposits, oil and gas are trapped in porous rocks. Drilling into the porous rock releases the oil and gas which then can be pumped to the surface. Or, in some cases, no pumping is necessary where conventional fields are under pressure and oil and gas can be collected at the surface.
Unlike conventional oil, the oil sands are a mixture of bitumen, sand, water and clay. If you were to look at oil sands under a microscope you would see that each grain of sand is surrounded by a thin envelope of water. This water also contains extremely fine particles of clay and other trace materials. The bitumen, a particularly thick and tar-like hydrocarbon, surrounds the sand and water. The major challenge in developing oil sands is separating the bitumen from the sand, water and clay. Once separated, bitumen can then be upgraded into a high-quality oil called "synthetic crude," but not until all the sand, water, clay and carbon have been removed.
Suncor Energy's Steepbank Mine Opens
The Oil Sands Discovery Centre wishes to congratulate Suncor Energy on the opening of its Steepbank Mine on Sept. 30/98.
This is a milestone in the history of Suncor Energy and the event was launched when a 240-ton truck broke through a banner that stated how the company sees this new minesite: "Realizing our Future."
The Steepbank project includes a seven building mining facility, a 300-ton capacity bridge over the Athabasca River and an innovative process for ore preparation. Instead of using conveyor belts to get the ore to the existing extraction plant, the new mine uses a hydrotransport pipeline system which is less costly and more energy-efficient. This pipeline system completes the first step of the extraction process - mixing ore with water to create an oil sand slurry.
This new project comes with the added environmental benefits of utilizing less energy to do the same job as before. As well, carbon dioxide emissions per barrel will be significantly reduced.
As the current minesite will be depleted by the year 2001, the Steepbank Mine, a $320 million project, will carry on supplying Suncor's contributions for fueling Canada's energy needs into the next millenium. It will also act as a prototype for the Project Millenium mine, slated to open in the year 2002.
Suncor Energy Wins International Award
The Oil Sands Discovery Centre would also like to acknowledge Suncor's success in winning an international award for its Environment, Health & Safety Report which was considered the best in the world.
On July 28, 1998, Suncor was honored for producing the finest of all the environment, health and safety reports at the International Annual Report Competition (ARC) Awards held in New York.
This award came upon the heels of having won two gold awards in the petroleum company category just prior.
The judges base their selections on various design elements, quality of writing, presentation and integration of financial information.
ADD a Yard for the TEN factor DIRT and get a TRILLION yards:
Tailings, we call them@!
BMD/BHMNF:
Syncrude's Billionth Barrel
Syncrude reached its billionth barrel of oil production on April 16, 1998. This is an incredible milestone for Syncrude and one which underscores the achievements and magnitude of the oil sands industry.
The Athabasca Oil Sands deposit exceeds Pembina and is Alberta's and Canada's largest oil field - a mark that will never be exceeded. The Athabasca Oil Sands had already yielded a billion barrels of oil to the collective oil sands industry in 1994/95. Syncrude is the first company now to exceed a billion barrels of oil by itself.
Oil Production Milestones for Syncrude
Start of production in July 1978
50 million in 1980
100 million in 1982
200 million in 1985
300 million in 1987
400 million in 1989
500 million in 1991
600 million in 1992
700 million in 1994
800 million in 1995
900 million in 1996
1 billion in April 1998
Record production year: 1997 at 75.7 million barrels
Syncrude Canada Ltd., is a joint venture by: AEC Oil Sands, L.P.; AEC Oil Sands Limited Partnership; Athabasca Oil Sands Investments Inc.; Canadian Occidental Petroleum Ltd.; Canadian Oil Sands Investments Inc.; Gulf Canada Resources Limited; Imperial Oil Resources; Mocal Energy Limited.; Murphy Oil Company Ltd.; and Petro-Canada.
The Oil Sands Discovery Centre congratulates Syncrude workers, management and contractors on this tremendous achievement!
How Big is a Billion?
Try to wrap your head around the concept of a billion. That's pretty tough when you think about it. For example: a billion is a thousand millions. How do you imagine that when it's hard enough to try to visualize a million? Here's a couple of ways:
Count to a billion on your fingers
The volume of a billion staples
ChuckaDecimalRides! Again:
One Billion (1,000,000,000)
-That's a lot of zeros!
But, Exactly how BIG is a Billion?
The way we all first learn to count is on our fingers.
So, how many fingers are there in one billion?
(Obviously, ONE BILLION, but what would that look like?)
(Above) One person = ten fingers
Multiply that by ten and you get...
(Above) Ten people = one hundred fingers
Multiply that by ten and you get...
(Above) One hundred people = one thousand fingers
Multiply that by ten and you get...
(Above) One thousand people = ten thousand fingers
Shrink all those down to one small unit and multiply it by ten and you get...
(Above) Ten thousand people = one hundred thousand fingers
Shrink all those down to one small unit and multiply it by ten and you get...
(Above) One hundred thousand people = one million fingers
Shrink all those down to one small unit and multiply it by ten and you get...
(Above) One million people = ten million fingers
Shrink all those down to one small unit and multiply it by ten and you get...
(Above) Ten million people = one hundred million fingers
Shrink all those down to one small unit and multiply it by ten and you get...
(Above) One hundred million people = one billion fingers
So, it would take one hundred million people to count on their fingers in order to collectively add up to one billion (maybe they should have counted their toes as well). That's more than three times the population of Canada! (Someone should apply for a government grant to do this).
You can also see that when you keep multiplying the group by ten it doesn't take very long before the picture of that many fingers becomes only an abstract blur.
This is why the number of one billion barrels of oil is so remarkable.
Also check out the volume of a billion staples!
Yeah, WE HAVE THAT, as the folks at STAPLES and Birch MOUNTAIN; Say!!! !
ChuckaThat BILLIONS of BULK TONNAGES and that is a fact!
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