EMD Bitumen/Heavy Oil Committee

Vice-Chairs and Members:

  • Timothy P Bata, PhD., Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University Bauchi, Nigeria.
  • Steven Schamel, PhD., GeoX Consulting Inc., Salt Lake City, Utah USA
  • Milovan Fustic, PhD., University of Calgary, Canada
  • Ravil R. Ibatullin, PhD., CEO, TAL Oil Ltd., Calgary, Alberta, Canada 

Executive Summary

Bitumen and heavy oil deposits occur in more than 70 countries across the world. The global in- place resources of bitumen and heavy oil are estimated to be 5.9 trillion barrels [938 billion m3], with more than 80% of these resources found in Canada, Venezuela and the United States. Globally there is just over one trillion barrels of technically-recoverable unconventional oils: 434.3 billion barrels of heavy oil, including extra-heavy crude, and 650.7 billion barrels of bitumen. These bitumens are commonly interpreted as degraded conventional oils (Head et al., 2003; Bata et al., 2015, 2016; Bata, 2016; Hein, 2016; Bata et al., 2018). The two most important processes that act on light oil to produce heavy oil are biodegradation (hydrocarbon oxidation process involving the microbial metabolism of various classes of compounds, which alters the oil’s fluid properties and economic value) and water washing (the removal of the more water-soluble components of petroleum, especially low molecular weight aromatic hydrocarbons such as benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and xylenes) (Palmer, 1993).

Virtually all the bitumen being commercially produced in North America is from Alberta, Canada, making it a strategic source of bitumen and of the synthetic crude oil obtained by upgrading bitumen. Estimated remaining established reserves of in-situ and mineable crude bitumen is 165 billion bbls [26.3 billion m3]. To date, about 5% of Canada’s initial established crude bitumen has been recovered since commercial production began in 1967. In-situ production overtook mined production for the first time in 2012 and continued to exceed mined production in 2013 (AER, 2015). The Faja Petrolifera del Orinoco (Orinoco Heavy Oil Belt) in eastern Venezuela is the world’s single largest heavy oil accumulation. The total estimated oil in-place is 1.2 trillion barrels [190 billion m3] of which 310 billion barrels [49.3 billion m3] is considered technically-recoverable. Currently, the United States is producing commercial quantities of heavy oil from sand deposits in two principal areas, the San Joaquin Basin of central California and the North Slope of Alaska. California has the second largest heavy oil accumulations in the world, second only to Venezuela. California’s oil fields, of which 52 each have reserves exceeding 100 million bbls [15.9 million m3], are in the central and southern parts of the state. As of 2014, the proved reserves were 2,854 million barrels [453.7 million m3], nearly 65 % of which is heavy oil in the southern San Joaquin Basin. In addition to the heavy oil accumulations that are being produced, California has numerous undeveloped shallow bitumen deposits and seeps, a resource is estimated to be as large as 4.7 billion bbls [0.74 billion m3].

Alaska’s heavy oil and bitumen deposits on the North Slope are very large (24 to 33 billion bbls, or 3.8 to 5.2 billion m3) and they hold promise for commercially-successful development. Heavy oil constitutes approximately 13.1% of the total Russian oil reserves, which official estimates place at 22.5 billion m3 or 141.8 billion bbls. Recoverable heavy oil occurs in three principal petroleum provinces, the Volga-Ural, Timan Pechora and the West Siberian Basin In all regions of sustained production, the industry is steadily improving in situ recovery methods and reducing environmental impacts of surface mining of bitumen and heavy oil.