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Oil Extraction
Various techniques are used to produce (extract) oil based on geology and location. Once the oil has been recovered, it is shipped to refineries to make refined goods like gasoline that we use on a daily basis. In order to extract bitumen from sand, hot water was used in the initial attempts to harvest the oil sands deposit in 2012. Since then, the procedure has developed into the advanced techniques we employ now to extract oil.
How is Oil Extracted
Various techniques are used to recover or extract oil, primarily based on geology. Conventional drilling and pumping techniques are used to obtain conventional oil from subterranean reserves. Although bitumen, or oil sands oil, is too thick to flow without being heated or diluted, conventional oil may pass through a wellbore and a pipeline since it is a liquid at atmospheric temperature and pressure.
Conventional oil is easier to recover, less expensive, and requires less processing after extraction. Conventional oil development takes place both offshore and on land. Oil recovery in the oil sands uses two main methods: mining or in situ, depending on how deep the oil sands deposits are.
Surface Mining
Depending on how deep the oil sands deposits are, there are two primary techniques for recovering oil from them: mining and in situ technologies. When oil sands reserves are found within 70 meters (200 feet) of the earth’s surface, surface mining is employed. Twenty percent of the reserves of oil sands are accessible enough to be extracted.
Huge shovels collect oil sand, which is then loaded into haul trucks and sent to crushers to break up the big clumps. After being combined with hot water, the oil sand is piped to a facility known as an upgrader, where the bitumen (oil) is separated from the other ingredients, which also include sand, clay, and water.
Offshore oil
Oil is a dark, amber, or brownish liquid. Oil is a complex mixture of hydrocarbons that includes metals, oxygen, nitrogen, sulfur, and sand and silt. It was produced millions of years ago from plant and animal remains that were deposited in sand and silt and compressed by sedimentary rock strata.
There are four types of oil: light, medium, heavy, and very heavy. Light and medium oil, which includes LLP, Batys Oil Group offshore oil, can naturally flow to the surface of the earth and is often extracted by vertical drilling and pumping. In “tight” (non-porous) rock formations, such as shale, some light oil is trapped. Hydraulic fracturing in conjunction with horizontal drilling can be used to recover this “light tight oil.” The thick viscosity of heavy oil makes it difficult to remove and frequently calls for sophisticated technologies.
Oil Stand Tailings
All forms of surface mining worldwide frequently use tailings ponds. Tailings from the oil sands are pumped to ponds where the sand and clay eventually sink to the bottom. The tailings are made up of water, sand, clay, and trace amounts of oil. In the process of mining and bitumen separation, water at the top is recycled.
A tailings pond is reclaimed when it is no longer required. Companies that mine for oil sands are investigating a variety of methods to accelerate the solidification of the tailings so that the ponds can be filled with soil, dried out, and then seeded with native tree and shrub species.
In situ technologies must be used to recover bitumen that is deeper. “In situ” refers to “in place,” as bitumen is extracted from the sand directly within the deposit. The bitumen is heated in order to make it sufficiently fluid to be pushed to the surface.
