Oil Sands: Canada-, Utah+

Crown Asphalt Ridge LLC (Sept 2012)

There is a big oil sands operation in Canada. They were getting large quantities of oil out of the ground, but it was kind of a crazy operation. They were using heat to separate the oil from the sand, and they were burning oil to get that heat. It took so much oil to generate the heat they needed that it only paid when the price of oil was high. Since the price of oil has collapsed (what caused that anyway?) the Canadian operations are no longer viable and may already have been shut down.
    Meanwhile there is a small plant in Utah that is using a solvent instead of heat to separate the oil from the sand. They recycle the solvent so it seems like a better solution all around. It's a proprietary technology. It's still kind of new. People are going to want to see how well these pilot projects pan out before they go jumping in with both feet.