The Pioneer Development And Application Of Tar Sands Technology

Through progress, Canadian Natural Resources Limited had progressed to primary heavy crude lands in 1993 and purchasing thermal in-situ areas 3 years later, becoming a leader in the in-suti crude oil developments. As of 2000, they sought out to acquire assets from The North Sea along with Offshore Africa while also creating gas conservation with equipment including "pipelines, pad compressors, booster compressors, gas plants, and fuel lines" (Canadian Natural Resources Limited Performance Presentation Primary Recovery Heavy Oil Sands Schemes, n.d.) While continuing to strengthen the Northwestern Alberta and British Columbia 's basins, Canadian Natural Resource Limited furthered their achievements by recognizing synthetic crude oil at the Horizon Oil sands, leading to a shipment of such into the sales pipeline. Also in 2008, Canadian Natural Resources seeked out the ‘Kirby In-Situ Oil Sands’, hoping for approval on another project. From the beginning Canadian Natural Resources has strived to achieve something different and make an impact. Throughout the history of the company, Canadian Natural Resources has continued to search for new and economic ways to improve the company, "predict[ing] an oversupply of natural gas could last as long as seven years, keeping prices low"( 2011, March. CNRL

To what extent does the Athabasca Oil Sands take responsibility in promoting environmental stewardship? The Oil Sands are a mixture of sand, water, clay and bitumen. Bitumen is oil that is too heavy or thick to flow or be pumped without being diluted or heated. Throughout many decades, the environment has become a critical concern, and the responsibility the Oil Sands has taken is preposterous. The GHG (greenhouse gas emissions) emissions that are released into the environment undermines its practices. The only way environmental stewardship can be encouraged, is if the Oil Sands discontinues its oil development. Other alternatives such as stricter rules and regulations should be placed by the government of Alberta to ameliorate the environment.

What is environmental stewardship, and why is it so important? Well, environmental stewardship is being responsible, with the way we treat the environment. It is important, because if we destroy our environment, we end up destroying that which provides for us, and ultimately our means of survival. We are going to talk about the Alberta tar sands development, and about how they are not effectively protecting their environment. This has already led to negative effects in the surrounding areas. These effects will only continue to worsen, if nothing is done to slow down, or further prevent them from happening.

The oil production in Canada has several significant issues that depict the destruction nature of the industry. These issues can be categorized as environmental, political, economic, and social. The environmental issues lead the pack; in that the environmental destruction associated with the industry is extensive. The environmental problems are climatic, land, water and air related (Best & Hoberg, 2015). Under climatic effect, studies indicate that the development of the tar sides has resulted to three times more greenhouse gases (GHGs) than in production of conventional oil. These environmental issues are caused by the composition of the tar sands. Unlike the convention oil, tar sands are a mixture of bitumen and sand. The process of separating the two results triples GHGs emissions when compared to conventional oil production (Koring, 2013).

The social community improvements of alberta as a result of the oil sands. The albertan government committed around 2.5 billion dollars in fixing up the communities of alberta as a result of the oil sands making so much money(Alberta government,march 15 2013). Some examples of this are the 1 billion in road projects, 241 million in building new neighbourhoods, and 103 million in wastewater treatment and to improve the old ones(Alberta government,march 15 2013). Air is rated good 99% of the time, drinking water consistently meets the the guidelines for canadian drinking water(Alberta government,march 15 2013). Which means the quality of life is good in the oilsands region. In conclusion the oil sands affect the communities of that region positively, by bringing in enough money to make improvements to the infrastructure.

Arguments are made for alternative means of retrieving oil on North American soil such as fracking and tar sands but there is a strong opposition

Government has been working closely with industry for years, which is also a key factor in developing the oil sands in a socially responsible way. Most major oil companies are involved with initiatives like Water for Life Strategy, Alberta Water Council and Petroleum Technology Alliance Canada (CAPP, 2012). Alberta’s oil sands are being developed with social responsibility in mind.

It has been proven and stated by the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) that “Tar sands oil is the dirtiest oil on

This 1.4 trillion-dollar industry has been able to benefit Albertans. To elaborate, Alberta’s upstream energy sector, which mainly includes the oil sands, conventional oil as well as gas and mining has provided 133,053 jobs for Alberta residents, according to Statistics Canada. As well, having the third largest oil reserves in the world, Canada is able to use the oil reserves as a trading asset, as it is currently providing 1.4 million barrels of oil to the USA everyday, which is equivalent to $49.7 million at current stock prices. As well, $52 billion dollars in royalty were accounted for during 2013-14. In this way, the oil sands industry provides jobs, billions of dollars in royalties and boosts national income and prosperity through the trading of this resource. This affects my stakeholder since this would give Ed Stlemech a healthy financial resume/profile to an otherwise terrible environmental and societal resume while he was Alberta’s

       The Alberta oil sands are a large contributor to the pollution of the air and water. They're responsible for 9.3% of Canada's greenhouse gas emissions and 0.13% of global emissions. The oil sands already produce a large amount of air pollution but the emissions are

Countries having the bituminous sand but the wide range of this sand are finding in Canada. The research show that this company is important for economy and showing robust future in the future because in 2004, the processing of engineered unrefined petroleum (SCO) and natural rough bitumen spoke to 41 percent of aggregate Canadian oil generation. At an accepted WTI cost of $32 for every barrel, the oil sands generation is relied upon to expand three fold by 2017, helping considerably more than 50% of Alberta's oil supply. The normal elevated amount of oil action ought to prompt gigantic budgetary development in the district and in addition in the area. The number of inhabitants in the locale (i.e., Wood Buffalo-Cold Lake Economic Region7) has expanded by 8 percent between 2000 and 2004. This contrasts and a development of 7 percent for the region, and 5 percent for the country over the same period. The development and improvement in the oil sands industry at the provincial level affects the common, national

The other adverse effect of the Canadian oil sands is that pipelines and massive processes of refining oil sands in Canada are a source of pollution that pose a great threat to air, water, and land as well as human health. Additionally, the use of its products like natural gas that is used to run medium-sized turbines that produce electricity releases greenhouse gases. These emissions are mostly produced when steam is injected to reduce the viscosity of the crude and during refining. These further increases to the global warming effect that is already out of hand and it also negates the gains made by society by exposing them to the adverse negative

Global diminishing energy resources and climate change are a growing issue. Every year there are more than 250 pipeline spills which contain hazardous liquid including tar sands. Tar sands are the leading cause of Canada’s global greenhouse emissions. TransCanada corp. is planning to repurpose a 40 year old pipeline, called Energy East, that runs from Saskatchewan to Ontario and attach a new pipeline that runs through Quebec to Saint John, New Brunswick. The problem with this idea is that the original pipeline they plan to repurpose is made in a way that would not be used today as the material that the pipe is made of is too thin which could result in spill. Oil spills are incredibly difficult to clean up because a diluted bitumen known as

Oil and gas usage because of tar sands is now considered the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in Canada, which means it actually produces more greenhouse gas emissions in North America than all the CO2 from vehicles. The tar sands create both a noxious air quality, and a polluted water quality with bitumen (Greenpeace Canada; Semeniuk, 2016). This issue, in relation to Canada, is most problematic at the Alberta tar sands. The scientific consensus on this issue is that the tar sands not only has become one of the biggest emissions problems in Canada, but also that it has become a major health concern because of the misunderstood and unknown pollutants in the air (Greenpeace Canada; Semeniuk, 2016; Dr. Gosselin, Dr. Hrudey, Dr. Naeth, Dr. Plourde, Dr. Therrien, Dr. Van Der Kraak, & Dr. Xu., 2010). There is also a general scientific consensus that this change in the air quality contributes to climate change. This change in air quality also creates a serious threat to humans. The tar sands impact ambient air quality and produces noxious odours, which humans inhale and have the possibility to damage our lungs (Dr. Gosselin, et al., 2010).

During the 1960s, Imperial Oil, an integrated oil company, discovered a vast quantity of bitumen deposits located in Eastern Alberta. At that time, there was no viable method of producing bitumen while simultaneously attempting to make profits. This matter led one of Imperial Oil’s researchers, Dr. Roger Butler, into developing a concept that will deal with this case. Based on his findings, he concluded that if steam were to be placed into areas where bitumen deposits were located, it could reduce the overall viscosity levels of the bitumen, allowing it to flow easily to a well where it could be extracted from the reservoir. Confident with his findings, he developed a patent for his idea in 1969 [4]. Dr. Butler spent several more years compiling information that assisted in furtherly developing his concept.