Oil Sands vs Tar Sands - Introduction

I posted a series of 3 blogs on the Oil Sands at www.titulia.com back in February of March this year. I origanily wrote this for an international audience, so it might seem basic to some.

Canada is a big country and Alberta is just one province . Some of you might not even know it exists. But lately Alberta has been receiving a lot of press. There has been a National Geographic article about it, several books, newspaper ads and other media campaigns as well a lot of lobbying in Ottawa and Washington and beyond. The oil sands are located in the North West corner of this province. The activity is centred around a town called Fort McMurray. This area isn't considered Northern Canada yet, but its still pretty isolated. Until recently. If you are unsure what the oil sands are, I recommend taking a look at the wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athabasca_Oil_Sands . This will give you a better idea of the scope of this article and why it is becoming contentious.

I was born in Alberta. I was raised here. My father earned a living from the petrochemical industry. I have traveled across the country and around the world. Alberta is still home. I work for the provincial government as a career counselor. I am not expert on this issue, but I have looked at both sides of the debates fairly extensively. As an Albertan, I have a stake in this issue. As this becomes an international issue I think it is important for Albertans to discuss this maturely on the world stage. There is a lot of attention turning onto Alberta and we need to be ready to answer some sticky questions.

The oil and gas industry has been key part of the Alberta economy since 1947. Natural gas still forms the bulk of our energy exports. But the oil sands have grabbed a lot of attention. It is one of the most extensive and accessible petroleum reserves world left in the world. It lies in a country with very stable political structures. Canada is only a country of 33 million people (with over a territory stretching over 9 million sq km) but it lies right beside a country with over 300 million. Regardless of the green movement, we are still going to need petroleum products for the medium term future. Perhaps we'll need less, but we're still going to need it. The oil and gas industry is a part of Alberta culture and it makes this province one of the richest in Canada.

There is right now a war of terminology going on between oil sands vs. tar sands. For those promoting the development of this resource, they call it oil sands, because that is basically was bitumen is - oil stuck in dirt. For those against the development, they like to call it tar sands - tar is a very ugly and noxious substance. It is dangerous, its not something you ever want to touch. But it is man made, it cannot occur naturally. So for the sake of this article, I am going to use the term oil sands to describe this resource. Perhaps this exposes my bias too prominently, but we all have bias. I'm just not going to make you drink it(neither my opinion or the bitumen).

I am going to write 2 more parts to this article. One will be the negative consequences of digging (and drilling) for the oil sands. There has been quite a bit written about the negatives, but I'll do my best to sum up the arguments. The second part will be the positives of oil sands development. Some might see this as Alberta government propaganda, but this my point of view, the Alberta government has taken no part in the commissioning of this article. Besides, I'm so far down the gov't totem pole that I have to walk to work. If needed, I'll end this series off with a conclusion.

I don't have a lot of references to give you. Most of my knowledge is gained by the daily media (The CBC, Edmonton Journal, Globe and Mail, National Post and sometimes CTV when I'm bored). Here is a website with a positive spin on the subject: http://www.oilsandsdiscovery.com/oil_sands_story/story.html . Here is a website from the nay side: http://www.tarsandswatch.org/ . Both were located through a Google search so I cannot endorse either website. But this allows the reader to gain perspective on both sides of the issue.