Oil In Alberta Essay

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Oil in Alberta, Canada It is hard to believe that over a hundred million years ago there was an inland sea in Alberta, Canada. Streams flowed into the inland sea bringing sand and mud with them. Over time, these sediments were covered by other sediments and they were compacted. It is believed that the oil came from the southern portion of the Alberta Sedimentary Basin. In present time, the land is known as the Athabascan Oil Sands. The Athabascan Oil Sands are composed of about 70% sand or clay, 10 % water, and between 0-17% heavy oil or bitumen. The heavy oil in a sense is wrapped around in sand particles which in turn surrounds water that contains other things such as titanium and vanadium. The Athabascan oil deposit is the largest reservoir…show more content…
Today, the government in Alberta supports and new process for extracting oil known as the Steam Assisted Gravity Drainage invented by Dr. Roger Butler. In the SAGD Process, two parallel horizontal oil wells are drilled in the arrangement, about 4 to 6 meters above one another. The upper well injects steam mixed with other solvents, and the other one collects the heated crude oil or bitumen that flows out of the formation, along with any water from the condensation of the injected steam. The foundation of this process is that the injected steam forms a “steam chamber” that grows vertically and horizontally in the formation. The heat from the steam decreases the viscosity of the heavy crude oil or bitumen which enables it to move down into the lower well chamber. The steam and gases rise because of their low density compared to the heavy crude oil below. The gases released, such as carbon dioxide, methane, and hydrogen sulfide, tend to rise into the steam chamber, filling the void space left by the oil. Oil and water flow countercurrent, gravity driven drainage into the lower well. The condensed water and crude oil is recovered at the surface by pumps such as progressive cavity pumps that work well with high viscosity fluids and suspended

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