15 FACTS ON
...
RESERVES & OILSANDS
November
2016
HYDROCARBON
ENGINEERING
112
Reserves
shallow enough to mine
(up to 75 m) are found only
within
the Athabasca (Alberta)
oilsands area
OILSANDS refers to
a mixture of
sand,
water, clay
and
bitumen
Oilsands are recovered
using
two main methods:
MINING
and
DRILLING
(in situ) – the method used
depends on how deep
the
reserves are deposited
Over the last 35 years,
Canadian
crude oil
production has increased by
2.2 million bpd,
mostly due to the
growth in supply from
the oilsands,
according to the CAPP
In 2014,
Venezuela
had
298 billion barrels
of proved oil reserves,
the
largest in the
world
– the next largest
are in
Saudi Arabia
(268 billion barrels)
and
Canada
(173 billion barrels),
according to the EIA
Most of Venezuela’s
PROVED
oil reserves are
located in its
ORINOCO
heavy oil
belt, which holds
220.5 billion barrels
The giant
Ghawar
field in
Saudi Arabia
is the world’s
LARGEST OILFIELD
in terms of production and
total remaining reserves –
it has estimated remaining
proved oil reserves of
75 BILLION BARRELS,
more than all but seven
other countries
In 2011,
OPEC countries
owned
NEARLY 82%
of
total crude oil reserves
WORLDWIDE
– this
percentage remained
relatively stable with
slight changes until
2015, according to
Statistica
IRAN
shares a
number of onshore
and offshore fields
with neighbouring
countries, including
IRAQ, QATAR,
KUWAIT and
SAUDI ARABIA
Iraq has five
SUPER GIANT
FIELDS
(defined as holding more
than 5 billion barrels of
oil reserves)
in the south
that account for about
60% of the country’s
total proved oil reserves
Because
oilsands does
not flow like conventional
crude oil,
it must be
MINED
or
HEATED
UNDERGROUND
before
it can be processed
Russia’s proved
oil reserves
were
80 BILLION BARRELS
as of January 2015, according
to the Oil and Gas Journal
–
most of Russia’s reserves are
located in
West Siberia
and in
the
Urals-Volga region
Oilsands development is
expected to contribute over
CAN$4 trillion
to the Canadian economy
over the next 20 years,
according to CERI
Although
Saudi Arabia
has about
100 MAJOR
OIL AND GAS FIELDS,
more than half
of its oil
reserves are contained
in
eight fields
in the
northeast portion of
the country
About
70%
of Iran’s crude
oil reserves
are
located
onshore,
with
the remainder
mostly located
offshore in the
Persian Gulf
