Excavating the Alberta Oil Sands with Public Justice

Overview of oil sands developments!

The Scope and the Challenge

North East Alberta

Bitumen Deposits =140,200 sq km

Size…

largest known hydrocarbon deposit 1.7 to 2.5 trillion barrels in deposit 2nd largest petroleum reserves in the world

(Saudi Arabia has largest) 175 billion barrels of bitumen deemed

recoverable (15% of the world reserves) With newer technologies, up to 2.5 trillion

barrels might be recovered

Geographical Comparison

larger than the state of Florida 2 X size of New Brunswick 4.5 X size of Vancouver Island greater than the entire country of Honduras

(112,088 sq. km)

Current production

Currently, 1.1 million barrels bitumen/day about 1/3 Alberta’s total oil production expected to rise to 2.7 million barrels / day by

2015 oil sands could supply Canada’s energy

needs for 475 years or total world needs for up to 15 years

Future Potential

Currently industry recovers 1.1 million barrels of bitumen / day

= about 1/3 Alberta’s total oil production expected to rise to 2.7 million barrels / day by

2015 oil sands could supply Canada’s energy needs

for more than 475 years or total world needs for up to 15 years

Open pit mining method

Open pit mining:

19% of reserve close to the surface ‘truck and shovel mining’ method move enough ‘overburden’ [sic] and oil sands

every 2 days to fill Toronto’s Skydome 2 tonnes must be dug up, moved and

processed to produce 1 barrel of oil

Extraction, processing and end-products

hot water extraction technique is used to separate bitumen from oil sands

75% of the bitumen can be recovered from sand

70% used for transport fuels—gasoline, diesel, jet fuel

Pipelines through Jasper

Massive tailings ponds

2nd largest dam in the world

Sometimes directly beside the Athabasca River

Forest reclamation

Alternative extraction methods

81% of oil sands reserves too deep to be open pit mined (deeper than 75 metres)

other processes are being developed leading process, at the moment, are in situ

steam operations E.g. Steam-Assisted Gravity Drainage

(SAGD).

Economic impacts

Alberta GDP was $183 billion (2006) GDP growth rate of 6.6% Alberta unemployment rate 3.4 % (March 2008) CPI Inflation Rate 3.5 % (Jan 2008) Alberta’s GDP per capita was $58,394 45% above Canadian average of $40,351 40% above second place Ontario $100B investment expected between 2000-2020

Where are we going?