Turning Canada's tar sands into oil
- Created by: Hannah Jeffery
- Created on: 19-01-15 10:38
View mindmap
- Turning Canada's tar sands into oil
- Tar sands
- naturally occurring mixtures of sand or clay and water
- very dense form of petroleum and bitumen
- naturally occurring mixtures of sand or clay and water
- locations
- Canada
- Northern Alberta
- larger area than England
- Northern Alberta
- Venezuela
- South America
- Canada
- demand
- rapidly developing countries increasing global demand
- china
- OPECs setting higher oil prices for the west to boycott America
- big companies invested because they have a large demand
- Alberta reserves expected to produce 5 million barrels a day by 2030
- peal oil in 2015
- rapidly developing countries increasing global demand
- how is the oil extracted
- mined by open cast mining
- High pressure steam pumped into the ground to separate the bitumen from sand
- extracted materials then crushed with water and the bitumen separated before it can be refined for use
- costs
- expensive
- $15 per barrel instead of $2 from conventional crude oil
- 'The Alberta Energy research institute
- large source of green house gases
- two tonnes of tar sands needed to produce one barrels of oil
- large quantity of waste
- large scale deforestation
- 147000 square miles of forest
- large quantity of water needed
- reduced water security
- pollutes 130km2 of lake with toxic waste
- Mike hudema a green peace activist
- 'its the greatest contributor ro climate change as it produces 100 million tonnes of greenhouse gases
- expensive
- Benefits
- provides an alternative source to depleting sources of oil
- by 2020 tar sands could meet 16% of north America's demand for oil
- increase Canada's and usa's energy security
- provide additional source of oil until renewable and cleaner sources are developed
- vital to Canadian economy
- 20% of total Canadian exports
- 80% can be sourced with technologies that don't need to be mined and so have less surface impact
- Tar sands
Comments
No comments have yet been made