Welcome to Petroleum Geology Forums

The MCW Energy Group is a Canadian company engaged in distribution of petroleum products and using unique, proprietary, environmentally friendly technology.

Oil sands exploration features both mining & in-situ production techniques. Mining of the oil sands requires excavation of the bitumen-rich sand using open pit mining techniques.

I need some material on basics of oil sand extraction

Oil sands are a mixture of sand/clays, bitumen and water. Each grain of oil sand has three layers: a layer of water surrounding the grain of sand, with bitumen surrounding the water to form the outer layer. The bitumen is much heavier than other crude oils. Oil sands are often referred to as tar sands or bituminous sands – all these terms are equivalent. However the use of the word "tar" to describe bitumen deposits is inaccurate.

Extraction of the oil sands is done by surface mining or in sit u, depending on the proximity of the resource to the surface. Surface mining extracts deposits less than 75 meters; in sit u extracts deep underground deposits.