TABLE OF CONTENTS Tar sand bitumen is another source of liquid fuels that is distinctly separate from conventional petroleum (US Congress, 1976; Speight, 2005, 2007).
Tar sand (also called oil sand in Canada) or the more geologically correct term bituminous sand is commonly used to describe a sandstone reservoir that is impregnated with a heavy, viscous bituminous material. Tar sand is actually a mixture of sand, water, and bitumen but many of the tar sand deposits in countries other than Canada lack the water layer that is believed to facilitate the hot water recovery process. The heavy bituminous material has a high viscosity under reservoir conditions and cannot be retrieved through a well by conventional production techniques.
Geologically, the term tar sand is commonly used to describe a sandstone reservoir that is impregnated with bitumen, a naturally occurring material that is solid or near solid and is substantially immobile under reservoir conditions. The bitumen cannot be retrieved through a well by conventional production techniques, including currently used enhanced recovery techniques. In fact, tar sand is defined (FE-76-4) in the United States as:
The several rock types that contain an extremely viscous hydrocarbon which is not recoverable in its natural state by conventional oil well production methods including currently used enhanced recovery techniques. The hydrocarbon-bearing rocks are variously known as bitumen-rocks oil, impregnated rocks, tar sands, and rock asphalt.
In addition to this definition, there are several tests that must be carried out to determine whether or not, in...
