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Out of Control Oil Spill has Gov't "Freaking Out"


nucklehead

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http://www.thestar.c..._operation.html

Oil spills at a major oil sands operation in Alberta have been ongoing for at least six weeks and have cast doubts on the safety of underground extraction methods, according to documents obtained by the Star and a government scientist who has been on site...The scientist said Canadian Natural Resources is not disclosing the scope of spills in four separate sites, which have been off bounds to media and the public because the operations are on the Cold Lake Air Weapons Range, where there is active weapons testing by the Canadian military...The scientist, who asked not to be named for fear of losing their job, said the operation was in chaos.

"Everybody (at the company and in government) is freaking out about this," said the scientist. "We don't understand what happened. Nobody really understands how to stop it from leaking, or if they do they haven't put the measures into place."

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I don't know the science behind this "cyclic steam stimulation", but to me it seems like it has much more potential for unwanted surprises. At least with when the oil sands are excavated it doesn't leak anywhere unexpected. I would much rather have some trees chopped down (and hopefully replanted later) to get to the oil rather than using pressurized steam and having the oil end up everywhere.

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I don't know the science behind this "cyclic steam stimulation", but to me it seems like it has much more potential for unwanted surprises. At least with when the oil sands are excavated it doesn't leak anywhere unexpected. I would much rather have some trees chopped down (and hopefully replanted later) to get to the oil rather than using pressurized steam and having the oil end up everywhere.

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Here's a crash-course. There are two main types of extraction - mining and in-situ.

In mining, you strip off all the vegetation and top soil, then dig out all the bitumen and truck it over to a separating plant. After you've gotten all the bitumen out, you fill the land over, replace the topsoil and grow the forest back. This devastates the land for the life of the mine, and you have issues with tailings ponds (garbage water after the fact). In the long term, the forest will grow back though. Mining is used when the bitumen is within 100m of the surface.

With in-situ, there are two main types of technology, CSS and SAGD:

CSS is the oldest tech and isn't really used anymore for new mines. Basically, you drill a hole into the ground, then you pump in high pressure steam. This "melts" the bitumen and turns it into a liquid. You then stop pumping in steam and suck out the oil. Once the oil slows down, you pump in more steam to melt more bitumen, then stop and pump out the oil again. You can repeat this process over and over for quite some time.

The new in-situ method is called SAGD (steam assisted gravity drainage). You basically drill two horizontal bores through the bitumen, one above the other. You pump steam into the top one, which melts the bitumen, and then pump the oil out from the lower one.

In-situ methods are usually used when the bitumen is 100m down or more. Usually, the bitumen is under a layer of cap rock, which sits underneath ~50m or more of dirt and vegetation. The nice thing about in-situ is it doesn't disturb the forest above it (unless something like this happens of course). You can pump the oil out from 100m below the forest without disturbing anything. It is more GHG and water intensive though.

In-situ is usually pretty safe because of the layer of cap rock that keeps everything separated from the forest above. Most have no issues, but it seems accidents do happen...

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Here's a crash-course. There are two main types of extraction - mining and in-situ.

In mining, you strip off all the vegetation and top soil, then dig out all the bitumen and truck it over to a separating plant. After you've gotten all the bitumen out, you fill the land over, replace the topsoil and grow the forest back. This devastates the land for the life of the mine, and you have issues with tailings ponds (garbage water after the fact). In the long term, the forest will grow back though. Mining is used when the bitumen is within 100m of the surface.

With in-situ, there are two main types of technology, CSS and SAGD:

CSS is the oldest tech and isn't really used anymore for new mines. Basically, you drill a hole into the ground, then you pump in high pressure steam. This "melts" the bitumen and turns it into a liquid. You then stop pumping in steam and suck out the oil. Once the oil slows down, you pump in more steam to melt more bitumen, then stop and pump out the oil again. You can repeat this process over and over for quite some time.

The new in-situ method is called SAGD (steam assisted gravity drainage). You basically drill two horizontal bores through the bitumen, one above the other. You pump steam into the top one, which melts the bitumen, and then pump the oil out from the lower one.

In-situ methods are usually used when the bitumen is 100m down or more. Usually, the bitumen is under a layer of cap rock, which sits underneath ~50m or more of dirt and vegetation. The nice thing about in-situ is it doesn't disturb the forest above it (unless something like this happens of course). You can pump the oil out from 100m below the forest without disturbing anything. It is more GHG and water intensive though.

In-situ is usually pretty safe because of the layer of cap rock that keeps everything separated from the forest above. Most have no issues, but it seems accidents do happen...

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I'll help you out here. The rig will drill past the depth they wish to start their redirection, then (this is my part) cement will fill hole upto the depth that the drilling will recommence. This called a whipstock plug meant to help the drilling bit bounce off the cement and start drilling horizontally.

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This doesn't surprise me at all given that I live in Alberta and work alongside numerous companies that operate in the oilfield.

Most (but not all) of the riggers that work these operations are either young, inept, or just plain ignorant. Sometimes all 3. The draw is making heaps of cash for relatively little education in comparative fields...basically get an H2S ticket and you are good to go (unless you are a millwright or welder or something that requires some real expertise).

I've always been a supporter of big business and heavy industry, I believe its an important component of the Canadian economy...however after living in Alberta for the last 6 years it gets harder and harder to look the other way as more things go wrong and the government refuses to step up with solutions to these problems.

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