Heavy Oil and Tar Sands

The U.S. has over 100 billion barrels of heavy oil resources, with the largest deposits in California and Alaska.  There are smaller but still significant deposits of several hundred million barrels in a number of other states. 

Heavy oil is a dense molasses like substance that does not flow easily and often requires some type of thermal injection, solvents, or in situ combustion method to make it viscous enough to produce economically.  The properties of heavy oil and it's high sulfur content require extra refining steps and thus the price for heavy oil is significantly less than for lighter, "sweeter" oils.

Tar sands, also referred to as oil sands, are composed mainly of sand and bitumen.  We have about 60 - 80 billion barrels of oil in tar sands located mainly in Utah and Alaska.  Currently, no commercial production of tar sands occurs in the U.S.

Various techniques such as surface mining, cold heavy oil production with sand (CHOPS), cyclic steam stimulation (CSS), steam assisted gravity drainage (SAGD), vapor extraction process (VAPEX), and toe to heel air injection (THAI) have been used successfully on heavy oil and tar sands.  A new "teleperfs" technology is undergoing testing and water alternating with gas (WAG) has also shown success. 

California has been producing heavy oil commercially since the 1850's.  The state currently uses mainly steam injection to produce about 400,000 barrels of heavy oil daily from about 30,000 wells, less than 14 barrels per day per well on average.

Alaska is beginning to develop the heavy oil resources that exist in large formations on the North Slope.  Techniques that do not use heat are required to protect the tundra.  BP is using CHOPS and testing a new type of pump.

Canada, which has massive tar sand resources, produced about 1.2 million barrels of oil per day from tar sands in 2007 and is expected to increase that to 2.8 million barrels per day by 2015 and 3.5 million barrels per day by 2020.  The bitumen is processed into a synthetic crude oil.  We have refineries in place that process Canadian tar sands synthetic oils so it will be easy to process domestic products either through substitution or expansion of refining capacity.

Canadian tar sands production costs, including capital expenses, vary between $9 and $27 per barrel depending on the production method used.  U.S. tar sands production costs will be marginally higher due to differences in the properties of the resources but will still be economical with crude oil prices above about $30 per barrel.

Additional Heavy Oil/Tar Sands Resources

About Tar Sands

Unconventional Fuels Task Force

UFTF Press Release

UFTF Report To Congress/President

Unconventional Fuels Task Force Report: Development of America's Strategic Unconventional Resources

Secure Fuels from Domestic Resources: The Continuing Evolution of America's Oil Shale and Tar Sands Industries

NPR's National Strategic Unconventional Resource Model

"From Reservoir to Refinery" and Other Educational Posters

Energy Efficiency of Strategic Unconventional Resources

Carbon Management for Strategic Unconventional Resources

USGS Heavy Oil Fact Sheet

World Heavy Oil and Bitumen Resources