The Extraction Process
![Picture](/uploads/1/0/5/0/10500287/1418115.jpg)
Surface Mining:
Uncovering the soil and rock on top of the oil which then is shipped into extract it. Syncrude and Suncor use lots of surface mining as its fairly cheap and they uncover lots of rock and find the bitumen by hauling massive trucks in and digging up the Earth to get at the oil.
After the oil has been dug up hot water and caustic soda is added to the sands which separates the oil from the clay thus giving you the oil from the form of chemistry which then goes to the extraction plant and is skimmed off the top and shipped off again and is produced into crude oil. However it takes 2-6 barrels of water and fuel to make 1 barrel of oil which isn't very eco-friendly numbers, it also uses a lot of water and only 85% of it is reusable so they waste 15% of water each time they are extracting the oil from the bitumen. This process is used throughout Alberta know by Syncrude and Suncor.
Uncovering the soil and rock on top of the oil which then is shipped into extract it. Syncrude and Suncor use lots of surface mining as its fairly cheap and they uncover lots of rock and find the bitumen by hauling massive trucks in and digging up the Earth to get at the oil.
After the oil has been dug up hot water and caustic soda is added to the sands which separates the oil from the clay thus giving you the oil from the form of chemistry which then goes to the extraction plant and is skimmed off the top and shipped off again and is produced into crude oil. However it takes 2-6 barrels of water and fuel to make 1 barrel of oil which isn't very eco-friendly numbers, it also uses a lot of water and only 85% of it is reusable so they waste 15% of water each time they are extracting the oil from the bitumen. This process is used throughout Alberta know by Syncrude and Suncor.
![Picture](/uploads/1/0/5/0/10500287/6480057.jpg)
Steam Assisted Gravity Drainage:
Two horizontal wells are setup underground in the oil sands, one at the bottom and the other slightly above it. They are drilled in groups across acres of tar sands for the industries to extract the oil, then steam is put into the upper well and the heat melts the bitumen which then flows into the second well which is then pumped up to ground level to use. This is used also widely throughout Alberta in smaller projects of large groups like Suncor's 'firebag' project.
Two horizontal wells are setup underground in the oil sands, one at the bottom and the other slightly above it. They are drilled in groups across acres of tar sands for the industries to extract the oil, then steam is put into the upper well and the heat melts the bitumen which then flows into the second well which is then pumped up to ground level to use. This is used also widely throughout Alberta in smaller projects of large groups like Suncor's 'firebag' project.