Oil Sands Deposits
Alberta’s three major oil sands deposits include:
Athabasca Deposit(236 billion cubic meters of initial in-place volumes of crude bitumen)
Cold Lake Deposit(29 billion cubic meters of initial in-place volumes of crude bitumen)
Peace Region Deposit(21.5 billion cubic meters of initial in-place volumes of crude bitumen)
Although the smallest of Alberta’s oil sands deposits, and the last to see a major expansion in production, the Peace Oil Sands still represent a deposit basin about 9% of the size of the Athabasca deposit and about 74% of the size of the Cold Lake deposit.
This is significant and as development activity ramps up, so too will the need for retail and commercial services, well-developed service and supply chains, strong and supportive host communities, and a regional workforce that is both adaptable and has the required skill sets to fill and staff available positions.
Given the depth of the Peace Oil Sands deposit profile, in-situ (drillable and stimulation recovery) technologies will be utilized. In-situ projects resemble heavy oil development and do not require mine pits or tailings ponds.
Recent estimates are that the Peace Oil Sands have approximately135 billion barrels of oil-in-place. This represents 7.5% of the total bitumen-in-place in the province (estimated at over 1,800 billion barrels or 286.5 billion cubic meters).
Generally, the recoverable (established) reserves are only a fraction of the initial bitumen-in-place. For the province as a whole, an estimated 170 billion barrels (or only 9.4%) are recoverable out of the total 1,800 billion bitumen barrels in place.
Alberta’s oil sands have been built on a history of technological innovation and continuous improvement in both operational and environmental performance.
Improvements in technical efficiency and
performance.
Reductions in environmental impacts and improvements in overall environmental performance.
Reductions in operating cost profiles.
Increases in the reserves base.