OIL SHALES & TAR SANDS

1. OIL SHALES & TAR SANDS Kim Killen & Frances Stoltz

2. Tar sands • Tar sands are a type of nonrenewable, unconventional petroleum deposit found primarily underneath Canada’s boreal forest • Consists of heavy crude oil trapped in a mixture of sand/clay and and bitumen, a heavy black viscous oil

3. Oil sands are found worldwide, from Canada to Venezuela • Alberta, Canada is the leading oil-sand industry

4. Oil Shale • Oil shale was formed millions of years ago by deposition of silt and organic debris on lake beds and sea bottoms. • Over long periods of time, heat and pressure transformed the materials into oil shale in a process similar to the process that forms oil

5. the largest deposits in the world are found in the United States in the Green River Formation, which covers portions of Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming

6. Tar sands/ Oil shalesare mined and processed to generate oil similar to oil pumped from conventional oil wells • BUT extracting oil from tar sands is more complex than conventional oil recovery

7. The combination of hot water and agitation releases bitumen from the oil sand that float to the top of the separation vessel, where the bitumen can be skimmed off. • The bitumen is then transported and eventually upgraded into synthetic crude oil. • About two tons of tar sands are required to produce one barrel of oil.

9. Ecosystem destruction • Tar sands extraction requires total destruction of pristine areas within the Canadian Boreal forest, • The forest is clear cut, the wetlands are drained, and living matter and soil are hauled away to expose the tar sands. • Oil companies remove and dump four tons of sand and soil for every one barrel of oil they get from tar sands.

10. Before/after

11. Pipe Breakage • On March 29, 2013, an Exxon Mobile pipeline carrying tar sands oil from Canada burst in the middle of a residential area in Arkansas, sending thousand of gallons of heavy crude oil through neighborhood streets • In the summer of 2010, a ruptured pipeline dumped more than 1 million gallons of raw tar sands oil into Michigan’s Kalamazoo River, poisoning people and wildlife for miles around.

12. Arkansas

13. Kalamazoo

14. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DCq015rc_lk

15. Current events • Landowners want Keystone pipeline fight to end- Keystone plan to lay down a pipe through Nebraska famer’s farm, most likely going to significantly reduce crop yield • Chicago confronts dirty bonanza of Canadian tar sand boom- black dust coating citizen’s houses, cars and even lungs as they refer to as “petcoke” • Lawrence and Colbert County residents concerned over possible tar sands mining- Alabama citizens concerned for their community’s environmental health

16. Work cited • http://theenergycollective.com/sites/theenergycollective.com/files/imagepicker/305171/oil%20sands%20in%20situ.jpg • http://ostseis.anl.gov/guide/tarsands/ • http://www.foe.org/projects/climate-and-energy/tar-sands • http://www.nwf.org/What-We-Do/Energy-and-Climate/Drilling-and-Mining/Tar-Sands.aspx • http://www.waaytv.com/news/lawrence-and-colbert-county-residents-concerned-over-possible-tar-sands/article_a018a5d8-af25-11e3-be7d-001a4bcf6878.html • http://ran.org/what-are-tar-sands