Canada’s remaining established
oil reserves are estimated
at 167.7 billion barrels, of which 97% is found in oil sands. Refineries
in Alberta, and many in the US, receive bitumen feedstocks via pipelines
for processing into value-added products such as gasoline and diesel
fuel. However, pipeline specifications require that bitumen either
be upgraded to a lighter synthetic crude oil (SCO) or be diluted with
a solvent to reduce viscosity and enhance density. SCO production
is capital intensive and operationally costly and also results in
significant greenhouse gas emissions. While adding a diluent to bitumen
is not economic, this work addresses current challenges being faced
by the oil sands industry and technology opportunities for improving
the competitiveness of bitumen in the world market. To this end, the
discussion focuses on oil sands distillate, which constitutes ∼44%
of the bitumen. It has been found that this virgin distillate is a
premium commodity in terms of diluent savings for pipelining and excellent
processability for producing transportation fuels that may require
some quality improvements.