ORIGINAL: Business Insider
May 18, 201
When reaching out to Alberta oil sands companies before a trip to Canada last month I thought all of them mined oil the same way — they don't.
The open mining most people think of when they picture the oil sands is just one way of extracting crude from the ground, but it is without a doubt the most dramatic. And we had to see it.
After being refused a mine tour and any type of access to a mining site or equipment, Business Insider rented a plane that I used to see everything I could of the mines on my own.
Restricted to flying no lower than 1,000 feet above the ground, I spent nearly two hours leaning out the window of a small Cessna 172 with a long lens, snapping pictures and trying to keep warm.
The oil sands hold up to two trillion barrels of oil spread over more than 54,000 square miles, making it the second largest oil deposit in the world after Saudi Arabia.
The amount of energy spent recovering that oil and the pollution created in refining it is immense and the impact on the environment profound.
Limiting that impact is important as oil companies are required by law to return the land to its original condition when they're done mining, but the amount of time required to do that has long been criticized.
Today's environmental focus at the mining companies is figuring out how to get the land back to its original state more quickly and efficiently.
And that is something that everyone who lives and works near the oil sands would be happy to see.
It used to be that people would come to work the mines for a couple of years and go back where they came from. That is changing as people put down roots and raise their children and grandchildren.
About 140,000 people are involved in working the oil sands with 100,000 more jobs expected in the next five years.
So, no matter how you feel about the oil sands or the burning of all that oil, you can be sure that as long as there's a market for it and people need jobs, the oil companies aren't going anywhere.
I also need to extend a sincere thanks to former oil sands worker Mike Pearson whose experience and insights proved invaluable.
To get a look at the oil sand mines we rented this Cessna 172 which the pilot was allowed to bring down to 1,000 feet — from there, through the open window and with a long lens we were able to see what really goes on in one of the most controversial places on the planet
The Alberta oil sands are spread across more than 54,000 square miles but we're taking a look at just a small part of that — the red line is an approximate outline of the entire deposit — the green is where we'll be flying
Most of the Athabasca oil sands lie just north of Fort McMurray — the small city is bordered on the east by Rt 63 — the Clearwater River to the west and the south— and the Athabasca River to the north
A lot of the oil money stops here first — this is Suncor Oil's recently remodeled $180 million Community Leisure Center — it's set to receive another $117 million expansion in September 2012
Housing is tough to find, and expensive, averaging about $770,000 — the newly built apartments at the top were abruptly condemned forcing police to evict tenants without their belongings one night last winter
Just up the Athabasca River is Suncor's upgrader — this is one of the sites where the oil from the oil sands is converted into synthetic crude
This is done by heating the raw oil, called bitumen, in a process called coking and produces the smoke that hovers about the whole area and a smell that fills the cockpit of the plane
Here are some small piles of coke
And here is one very immense pile of coke waiting to be used or sold as fuel for smelting iron
After it's coked, the oil is "cracked" to break the heavy parts down into lighter more desirable petroleum products
Cracked, coked and lighter, what's left gets sent to a tower like this, where the inside is hotter at the top than the bottom, forcing dense material down and lighter petroleum products up
Then everything is exposed to hot, high pressure gas that removes even more impurities like sulfur
The sulfur would normally then be sold
But a glut in the sulfur market is keeping prices low, and in the meantime mountains of it continue to grow
Once the oil is "upgraded" it will go to a storage tank like this one currently under construction
But that is all at the end of a process that begins here in the strip mine
This is how the oil sands have been harvested since 1967
There were only two companies working the sands in 1998 and local officials were concerned even those would be forced to close
But not long after that oil prices rose, the Canadian government restructured its royalty system, and new technology caused a huge boom
From small companies to conglomerates like Shell — each outfit starts off the same way
