hello Bibiche I will post a portion of this article but if you wish the whole article let me know and I will send it to you. I would rather not post this article due to pumping.
Best wishes Mary.
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The 1.8 trillion barrels of oil in Alberta takes the form of bitumen – a thick, gritty mixture of oil and sediment. With SAG-D, steam is injected into the bitumen, melting it into a liquid form that is then pumped to the surface.
You see, trapped beneath the frozen tundra in Alberta lies a tremendous amount of oil – seven times more oil than Saudi Arabia's proven reserves... enough oil to last us 4,896 years.
But for the past decade, oil companies have only been able to reach a tiny fraction of that gargantuan supply. Ninety percent of it was considered "unrecoverable" because a successful method for extraction did not exist.
That is, until now...
The 1.8 trillion barrels of oil in Alberta takes the form of bitumen – a thick, gritty mixture of oil and sediment. With SAG-D, steam is injected into the bitumen, melting it into a liquid form that is then pumped to the surface.
Thanks to a newly patented technique – Steam Assisted Gravity Drainage or SAG-D – the 1.8 TRILLION barrels of trapped oil is finally accessible...
According to Tom Harding of the University of Calgary, for Canada this breakthrough is "maybe even bigger than the railway."
That's why it's astonishing that so few American journalists have picked up on this story. For the most part, only local Alberta newspapers, Canadian government officials and industry insiders are talking about it:
• "We are the Saudi Arabia of the North," says Dr. Rick Luhning, a Canadian government oil authority. "We now... have developed the key to these riches."
• "SAG-D has had a staggering economic impact. It will... change the whole geopolitics of oil in the world," reports Tom Harding.
• And Brian Jean, a Canadian parliamentarian believes, "It's bigger than a gold rush."
Investment by Big Oil Companies
Company Amount Invested Expected First Production
CNOOC $150 million 2007
UTS $125 million 2008
Statoil $2,200 million 2009
Petro-Canada $300 million 2010
Teck Cominco $250 million 2010
Teck Cominco $220 million 2010
KNOC $310 million 2010
Sinopec $149.7 million 2011
Total SA $1,667 million 2011
Enerplus $182.5 million 2011
Suncor $107.5 million 2017
Source: Oil and Gas Investor
Currently, the area produces one million barrels of oil a day. But that's nothing compared to what lies ahead...
The Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers predicts that production will more than triple in the next seven years – and that SAG-D will be responsible for at least half that amount.
Now that commercial extraction using SAG-D is underway, Big Oil is using its considerable weight and resources to fast track production...
More than $125 billion has been committed to projects in the area. That's nineteen times the total U.S. investment in the alternative energy sector.
