Oil sands Essays

Oil sand operations in Canada have been causing major impacts on the environment and social communities. Although the government sees the oil sands as another gold rush there have been major cons caused by the mining in Alberta.Firstly, the oil sands are located in the boreal forest, in order to mine the oil, it is necessary for the miners to use the strip mining method. This method causes habitat loss, animal endangerment, and pollution. Secondly. In Order to refine the oil, pipelines spread across

Oil sands are the combination of sand, water, clay and bitumen that can be found in different places around the world like USA, Russia and Canada (Carlisle, 2006). According to Carlisle (2006), the earliest documented oil sands mining operation was set up in 1745 in northeastern France, with refining capabilities added in 1857. Canada and especially Alberta has become one of the biggest countries of oil sands world-wide because of their knowledge in connecting the technology in their project as well

reality with the Alberta oil sands. James Cameron, the director of Avatar, created this blockbuster to bring awareness to a growing issue of Alberta’s oil sands. Undoubtedly, he has achieved this task as this movie shows numerous similarities, but also some differences regarding the current situation with the oil sands. Both show similarities when it comes to cultural and environmental sustainabilities. One environmental sustainabilities that both Avatar and the Alberta oil sands share is that in both

Environmental Stewardship The Alberta Oil Sands is the biggest energy project on the planet. The oil sands underlie more than 140,000km2 in north and eastern Alberta, Canada. There are 175 billion barrels of recoverable bitumen in Alberta, and this unconventional oil is extracted by two different methods. Oil sands, referred as tar sands, are a natural mixture of sand, clay, water and a type of heavy oil “bitumen”. Crude bitumen comprises approximately 10% of the oil sands. When it is located less than 75

The Oil Sands - The Way to Go or Time to Say No? The Oil Sands are a large source of energy in Canada which meet large demands for energy. Alysa Encarnacion, Editorial Writer May 14, 2017 ATHABASCA — The Oil Sands are the “heart” of Canada’s economy, rewarding us with 1.7 trillion dollars. There are both benefits and cons to the Oil Sands, affecting Canada economically, socially, politically, and environmentally. The Oil Sands have contributed $91 billion to Canada’s GDP. The Oil Sands will

Tar sands and fracking are very different processes but have very similar impacts on the economy, society and the environment. So, before we start comparing, what are tar sands? Tar sands, or oil sands is the mixture of sand, clay and water, which contains extra heavy crude oil called bitumen. Because Bitumen is very sticky and viscous, there are special ways to mine it. There are 2 main ways, open-pit mining and In-situ, but we will be focusing on In-situ as it is the main way of obtaining bitumen

Low oil prices are threatening the health of Canada's oil and gas sector, which is causing trouble in Canada's economy. The low oil prices are forcing billions of dollars in reduced spending for Canada's oil and gas industry. February 2015, Royal Dutch Shell (RDSA) moved away from plans for a project in Alberta that would have produced 200,000 barrels per day. In 2014, Petronas stopped plans to build a massive LNG export terminal on Canada's west coast. In fact, just a few of the 18 proposed LNG

mixture that was consisted of water, salt, sand and mineral oil. This was achieved through the knowledge on physical properties of the substances being used, and also through previous understanding of intermolecular forces. This lab is based on the Athabasca Oil Sands, which are located in Northern Alberta, an area that is highly controversial due to its negative impact on the environment and the First Nations People. In 2011, 52 million tons of crude oil were extracted and distilled for fossil fuels

Why Tar Sands Are Not All Good: The Pros and Cons With oil prices constantly fluctuating, there is a need to find cheaper alternatives. affordable doesn't always relate to something good and positive, however. tar sands, for example, is considered a potential energy source that is economically feasible at its current prices, but with major trade offs. The oil sands in Alberta for instance produce toxic sludge that can have catastrophic environmental impact, as it can contaminate alberta's groundwater

Suncor Energy Inc. Oil Sands is a mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction facility that belongs to Suncor Energy Oil Sands Limited Partnership. Suncor is a Canadian energy company based in Calgary, Alberta which specializes in the production of crude oil from oil sands. Suncor was the first company to commercially develop the oil sands and currently holds one of the largest positions in the oil sands. In addition to being the fifth largest North American energy company, Suncor is one of the

Competitor Analysis Husky Energy Husky is a Canadian integrated oil and gas producer, with operations in Canada and Asia. In recent years, they have improved completion of development plans. They suffer from poor netbacks in upstream operations and relatively low margins in their refining operations. One example of poor execution in oil sands growth is the Tucker oil sands project. The project was well over expected costs and incurred additional costs close to 50% higher than the industry average

In the article “Dirty oil is turning Canada into a corrupt Petro State” written by the Canadian, Journalist, well-awarded author Andrew Nikiforuk, argues that bitumen, steam plants, and tar sands are changing Canada from a country that cared; to a country that does not stand for much. Throughout this rhetorical analysis, I will use the three appeals to prove these points. The author Andrew Nikiforuk uses the appeal of Ethos to help get his message across to his readers. The appeals of ethos proves

The oil sand are drastically reducing the amount of biodiversity in the ecosystems of Alberta. First of all, diverse habitats are disappearing quickly because of gas and oil exploration, timber harvesting, urban expansion, and many others. Oil deposits are underneath these important ecosystems and the land is taken over by mining companies. Forests, wetlands and fields turn into oil mills, and native species are forced elsewhere. The Institute of Wetlands and Waterfowl Research estimates that approximately

parts of Canada such as Alberta, Ontario and Quebec. Montreal refinery of Suncor produces137, 000 barrels of gasoline, heavy fuel oil, solvents and feedstock for lubricants per day. Refinery in Sarnia, produces 85,000 barrels kerosene, jet and diesel fuel and gasoline per day. They have two more refineries in Edmonton and Commerce City that produces gasoline, oil sands and diesel fuel and have the capacity of 135,000 and 98,000 barrel per day. In December 2009, Suncor purchased 98 retail outlets in

Suncor is an energy company that was first created in Montreal, Quebec, Canada in 1919. Their headquarters are now located in Calgary, Alberta. They specialize in producing synthetic crude which they get from Alberta’s Oil sands. John Ferguson happens to be the Chairman of the Board and Steve Williams is the CEO. They also own Petro-Canada as they merged with the company on the first of August, 2009. Their stocks have had some rough patches over the past few years. In January 8th, 2010 the stocks

SU.TO ANALYSIS Suncor Energy Inc. operates as an integrated energy company and focus on developing petroleum resource basins in Canada 's Athabasca oil sands. They also explore, acquire, develop, produce, and market crude oil and natural gas. [I] At the beginning of the school year (September 6th) the price per share was $35.36. Currently, almost three months later, the price per share has now reached $42.97. The upward trend sounds promising for the future of the stock. Not much news came out during

deals with the acquisition, exploration, development, production and marketing of crude oil and natural gas. Suncor has four main business divisions that consist of refining and marketing, oil sands, exploration and production and energy trading. Competitors and Competitive Position There are hundreds of Oil and Gas companies in Canada and Suncor is at the top. Suncor is Canada’s largest and most dominant Oil and Gas Company. Suncor has the efficiency and innovation not met by most other companies

Alberta’s economy as we see it right now is not doing the greatest. Our main resource that we depend on, our oil, is continually going down in value. Looking ahead to the future Alberta is going to need a resource away from oil. A solution that could be very beneficial for Alberta is changing over to ethanol fuel. By changing our cars to using ethanol fuel we could help the environment immensely and also help boost our economy. Thinking about what ethanol fuel actually is, many may not know

first issue we will discuss is the low oil price environment. As the case study points out, oil prices topped the list of issues facing the energy industry. The large amounts of crude oil available in world markets meant that the West Texas Intermediate price had fallen to $30/bbl by mid-February (Vietor, 2016, p.13). Combined with a surplus of heavy oil, this meant that the markets were discounting Western Canadian Select oil by around US$15/bbl (p.13). Low oil prices eat away at revenues and cash

resource called oil became a popular demand in most countries especially The United States of America. Canada started to become richer with money from this a resource. The U.S. wanted a more efficient way to get their oil from Canada, so the U.S. and Canada created a Keystone pipeline to deliver this oil from one country to the next. Over the years a new proposition came along to build another pipeline called the Keystone pipeline XL for an even more efficient way to deliver oil. With this new idea