The Trillion-Barrel Tar Pit

[FishForLunch]

Hope the Enviro Wackos dont shut down this.
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The biggest petroleum reserve outside Arabia lies beneath Canada in the form of heavy oil. Here's how Syncrude is priming the pump.

1. Syncrude shovels excavate thousands of tons of soil and clay, creating a 150-foot pit for mining the oil sands below.

2. Oil sand is piled high into monster Caterpillar trucks, capable of carrying 400 tons at a time.

3. The trucks dump their payload into crushers, which grind it down to fine oil-coated grains.

4. The sand is transferred via conveyor to a cyclofeeder, where it's mixed with hot water to produce a slurry. The slurry flows to the extraction facility, where large centrifuges separate out the oil-rich bitumen.

5. Bitumen flows to cokers, where it's heated to remove impurities such as sulfur and nitrogen, leaving only usable crude oil.

6. The crude is sold to off-site refineries, which produce gasoline.


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[u2sarajevo]

The Caterpillar 797