Oil Sands: Alberta's Huge Oil Reserves

The province of Alberta, Canada is home to one of the largest reserves of oil in the world. That's right, the United States' neighbor to the north is second only to Saudi Arabia in oil reserves. Officially the proven reserves cover 54,363 square miles...in other words, the size of Florida. There are 175 billion barrels of proven oil reserves in Alberta; Saudi Arabia has 260 billion barrels.

Why haven't we heard about this close by bounty? Probably because the reserves are not typical of most oil fields. When you think of oil reserves you envision oil pumps undulating up and down, tapping and pumping the black viscous oil buried deep in the earth. The reserves in Alberta, however, aren't being tapped with pumps and drills; the oil is suspended in immense tracts of sand. The sand is scooped up and loaded onto huge trucks and transported to a processing plant.

The Process

The sand is then heated in liquid and the oil separates from the sand. The oil rises to the top the sand falls to the bottom. The oil, which is mostly, bitumen, a thick, sticky form of crude oil, needs further upgrading before it can be refined into sellable oil. But the end result is extremely high quality crude oil.

Since the oil sands need to be processed more than the traditional types of oil reserves, many thought the process would become too costly. However, with the increase in oil prices it has become a huge money making endeavor for Alberta. One huge advantage the oil sands have over other reserves is that there are no exploration risks. The oil sands are readily found. They lie close to the surface and don't require any exploratory drilling based on dubious geological information. Traditional oil drilling operations spend huge amounts of money searching and exploring for more reserves. This is an expense the Canadians simply don't have.

The oil sands are scooped into huge trucks, which are 3 stories high and cost upwards of 5 million dollars apiece. Each truck is capable of carrying 400 tons of oil sand per trip. It takes about 2 tons of oil sand to produce one barrel of crude oil. So, each truckload is worth around 10,000 dollars. It doesn't take long to pay for the trucks at that rate.

Nasty Weather Great Driving

Northern Alberta is an extremely inhospitable and cold environment. However, it is this cold, which allows these immense trucks to traverse the terrain. The frozen ground can support the massive weight of these fully loaded behemoths. When it warms up, however, the trucks are in danger of sinking into the bogs and disappearing. In fact the trucks are equipped with escape hatches on the roofs, which allow for quick exits by the drivers if they get into trouble.

Modern Day Gold Rush

The nearest town to this oil bounty is Fort Mcmurray. Since the active production of the oil sands began, it has transformed from a sleepy town to a gold rush town. The population has exploded with the draw of high paying jobs in the oil sands industry. The demand for workers is so high that many are being transported from the bigger cities further south to accommodate the need. Not many people want to move to the inhospitable northern part of Alberta, so this commute becomes necessary.

The oil sands of northern Alberta are immense and a huge boon for Alberta and Canada as a whole. It will be interesting to see how this nearby oil reserve will affect the United States and it's seemingly insatiable thirst for oil.