Upstream

Oil Sands Mining

North of Fort McMurray in Alberta, Canada exist large deposits of bitumen located close to the surface. In these deposits, the oil sands are recovered by truck and shovel operations, then transported to processing plants where warm water separates the bitumen from sand and other impurities. The bitumen is diluted and then upgraded to form synthetic crude oil. There are an estimated 176 billion barrels in place in shallow Canadian oil sand deposits. After mining, the land is filled in and reclaimed.

While oil sand mining operations and technology vary by operator, each mine site includes the same fundamental step: removing overburden and oil sand, separating bitumen from the sand, managing tailings and reclamation. Baker Hughes partners with mining operators to find solutions to their most pressing issues in order to increase the amount of bitumen recovered and optimize the treating process water so that it can be recycled.

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