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Alberta's abundant oil sands

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Alberta’s oil sands deposits contain an estimated 1.7 to 2.5 trillion barrels of oil—one-third of the known oil reserves in the world, and second only to Saudi Arabia’s established reserves.

Aboriginals first used the bitumen found there, which looks very much like tar, to waterproof their canoes. Later, pioneers noticed the oil sands, but it wasn’t until the 1870s that scientists began to dream of ways to mine the deposits. Now, more than 130 years later, sophisticated mining technologies and high oil prices have made the oil sands an affordable alternative as a major source of oil.

The oil-saturated sand deposits left over from ancient seas lie in three main areas: Peace River, Cold Lake and Athabasca. The Athabasca deposit is the largest, and closest to the surface in the region around Fort McMurray, where large-scale mining is underway.

Exploiting the oil sands is expensive because, even after extracting the oil sands using mining techniques or recovery using injected steam, the oil must be separated from the mineral matter and the water, and then further refined. It takes roughly two tonnes of oil sands to extract enough oil to fill one barrel. As a result, the oil extracted from the oil sands becomes profitable only when the world price of oil tops US$25. Since the price of a barrel of oil is currently well above that benchmark price, the refining of petroleum from the oil sands has become a viable option.

In 2003, more than one-third of all the oil produced in Canada came from the oil sands. With diminishing world reserves of fossil fuels and growing economies worldwide, the oil sands are likely to be an increasingly important energy source.