The Cretaceous McMurray oil sands, Alberta, Canada: A world-class, tidally influenced fluvial-estuarine system--An Alberta government perspective

摘要

15.1 INTRODUCTION The world's largest bitumen deposits occur in northeast Alberta, Canada (Fig. 15.1) with an estimated 166 billion barrels of remaining established reserves (Alberta Energy Regulator (AER), 2015). The Alberta Energy Regulator (formerly the Energy Resources Conservation Board) continually updates the crude bitumen resources and reserves in Alberta, as part of its annual Alberta's energy reserves and supply/demand outlook (Alberta Energy Regulator, 2015). The Athabasca oil-sands area is mainly hosted by the Wabiskaw-McMurray interval (considered together in this reserves assessment), with another relatively major bitumen contribution from the underlying Devonian carbonates in the Grosmont Formation. Other bitumen accumulations are in the Cretaceous Grand Rapids Formation and in the Devonian Nisku Formation (Fig. 15.1; Table 15.1).