[Xist]

I do not know if anyone is interested, if not, I hope that I do not waste your time, but this extra credit opportunity was offered last week. I spent several sleep-deprived hours working on this, but ran out of time.

Like everything else that I do, it took way too long, and I really wanted to explore this further, I just did not have the time.

Our instructions were:

Choose an "energy town" and develop its "geography of energy". Pick one of the following: Uranium City, Saskatchewan; Ft. McMurray, Alberta; Houston, Texas; Farmington, New Mexico; Gillette, Wyoming; Baku, Azerbaijan; Stavanger, Norway; Port Harcourt, Nigeria; Calgary, Alberta; Perth, Australia; Abu Dhabi, UAE; Aberdeen, Scotland.

You are responsible for working out what should be included, but remember that geography is a “spatial” science that concentrates on the surface of the Earth, so that means it could include such themes as location, distribution, siting, movement,relationships with other places, interactions between nature and society, and so forth. You may take any angle on this assignment that you want, although you should be certain to defend what you choose as fitting into the geography of the city you stress.

No more than 500 words, plus graphics
* Include source data and description of any graphs, images, etc. that you include in your paper. Don't include things and not explain to your audience why you put them in the paper!
* If you use information from another person, you MUST cite it appropriately. If you paraphrase or include any statistics, you must have the proper citation.

15 points

Save the document by your last name and put 'energy town" in the subject line.

Due: by e-mail to our TA by April 15th

I was trying to figure out how the oil sand industry affected the whole area, including the environmental effects, but everything depended on the information that I found, which was difficult. I am still not sure what "The geography of energy" is supposed to mean.

Alberta is a province in southwestern Canada that passed four million people in 2,013 (Canada, 2014) and is one of only two land-locked provinces, along with Saskatchewan to the east. It is bordered by Montana to the south, British Columbia to the west, and Northern Territories to the north. Fort McMurray is a community close to the eastern border of the province that had 76,797 residents in 2,010 (Buffalo, 2,014), on the Athabasca River. Fort McMurray is on the eastern side of the Athabasca oil sands, which occupy 54,000 of the province’s 248,000 square miles, or almost 22% (Edemariam, 2,007) (Land and freshwater area, by province and territory, 2,005). Oilsands Review has a Canadian OILSANDS Navigator, showing bitumen and synthetic crude production for 2,011, 2,012, and 2,013 (Canadian OILSANDS Navigator, 2,013). I created a table below listing the various projects in Fort McMurray; I counted twenty-two different companies operating, with diverse names like Imperial, SinoCanada, Royal Dutch Shell, and Japan Canada Oil Sands Limited.

Much of the bitumen is processed in-situ, but it was predicted that by this year, oil sand production will reach the local coking capability (Muck and brass, 2,011). The proposed Keystone XL pipeline would initially be 1,179 miles long, connecting Hardisty, Alberta to Steele City, Nebraska, and eventually to refineries in Texas (TransCanada, 2,014). Environmentalists oppose the pipeline, but if it is not built, the product may instead be sold to countries less concerned with pollution. Processing the oil sands results in tailings, consisting of sand, leftover bitumen, water, clay, and pollutants, stored in toxic lakes, currently covering 66 square miles (Muck and brass, 2,011). The Environmental Protection and Enhancement Act (EPEA) requires these companies to return the land to “an equivalent land capability” (Reclaiming Alberta's Oil Sands, 2,013). In September of 2,010, Suncor completed reclamation of one of these lakes and promised to spend 1.2 billion Canadian dollars to deal with the rest (Muck and brass, 2,011). Processing the oil sands generates abundant CO2, 12% more than other sources (Lewis, Ljunggren, & and Jones, 2,012), but most of this pollutant comes from vehicle emissions, while other industries pollute much worse. Andrew Leach, who works for the Alberta School of Business, estimates that each tonne of CO2 from oil sands generates 500 Canadian dollars of value, compared to twenty or thirty from power plants that burn coal (Muck and brass, 2,011).

Project: Mildred Lake/Aurora
Operator: Syncrude Canada Ltd.
bbls/day of Syn Crude: 274,497
Ownership: Canadian Oil Sands Limited 36.74%
CNOOC Limited 7.23%
Imperial Oil Limited 25%
Mocal Energy Limited 5
Murphy Oil Company Ltd. 5%
SinoCanada Petroleum Corporation 9.03%
Suncor Energy Inc. 12%

Project: Base Operations
Operator: Suncor Energy Inc.
bbls/day of Syn Crude: 288,526
Ownership: Suncor Energy Inc. 100%

Project: Muskeg River
Operator: Shell Albian Sands
bbls/day of Syn Crude: N/A
Ownership: Chevron Canada Resources 20%
Marathon Oil Corporation 20%
Royal Dutch Shell plc 60%

Project: Horizon
Operator: Canadian Natural Resources Limited
bbls/day of Syn Crude: 100,852
Ownership: Canadian Natural Resources Limited 100%

Project: Jackpine
Operator: Shell Albian Sands
bbls/day of Syn Crude: N/A
Ownership: Chevron Canada Resources 20%
Marathon Oil Corporation 20%
Royal Dutch Shell plc 60%

Project: Firebag
Operator: Suncor Energy Inc.
bbls/day of Syn Crude: N/A
Ownership: Suncor Energy Inc. 100%

Project: Christina Lake - Cenovus Energy Inc.
Operator: Cenovus Energy Inc.
bbls/day of Syn Crude: ConocoPhillips
Ownership: Canada Limited 50%
Cenovus Energy Inc. 50%

Project: Jackfish
Operator: Devon Canada Corporation
bbls/day of Syn Crude: N/A
Ownership: Devon Canada Corporation 100%

Project: Long Lake
Operator: CNOOC Limited
bbls/day of Syn Crude: N/A
Ownership: CNOOC Limited 100%

Project: Mackay River
Operator: Suncor Energy, Inc.
bbls/day of Syn Crude: N/A
Ownership: Suncor Energy, Inc. 100%

Project: Christina Lake - MEG Energy Corporation
Operator: MEG Energy Corporation
bbls/day of Syn Crude: N/A
Ownership: MEG Energy Corporation 100%

Project: Surmont - ConocoPhillips
Operator: Canada Limited
bbls/day of Syn Crude: N/A
Ownership: ConocoPhillips Canada Limited 100%

Project: ConocoPhillips
Operator: ConocoPhillips Canada
bbls/day of Syn Crude: N/A
Ownership: Canada Limited 50%
Total E&P Canada Ltd. 50%

Project: Great Divide
Operator: Connacher Oil And Gas Limited
bbls/day of Syn Crude: N/A
Ownership: Connacher Oil And Gas Limited 100%

Project: Kai Kos Dehseh
Operator: Statoil
bbls/day of Syn Crude: N/A
Ownership: Statoil 60%
PTT Exploration and Production 40%

Project: Hangingstone Pilot
Operator: Japan Canada Oil Sands Limited
bbls/day of Syn Crude: N/A
Ownership: Japan Canada Oil Sands Limited 100%

Project: Kearl
Operator: Imperial Oil Limited
bbls/day of Syn Crude: N/A
Ownership: ExxonMobil Canada Energy 29.04%
Imperial Oil Limited 70.96%
 
Works Cited
Buffalo, R. M. (2,014, March 25). Fort McMurray. Retrieved from Regional Munincipality of Wood Buffalo: Fort McMurray
Canada, S. (2014, March 19). Estimates of population, Canada, provinces and territories. Retrieved from CanSim: CANSIM - 051-0005 - Estimates of population, Canada, provinces and territories
Canadian OILSANDS Navigator. (2,013, February 8). Retrieved from Oilsands Review: Canadian Oilsands Navigator
Edemariam, A. (2,007, October 29). Mud, sweat and tears. Retrieved from The Guardian: Aida Edemariam on the environmental impact of the tar sands of Alberta in Canada | Environment | The Guardian
Land and freshwater area, by province and territory. (2,005, February 1). Retrieved from Statistics Canada: Land and freshwater area, by province and territory
Lewis, B., Ljunggren, D., & and Jones, J. (2,012, May 10). Insight: Canada's oil sand battle with Europe. Retrieved from Chicago Tribune: Insight: Canada's oil sand battle with Europe - Chicago Tribune
Muck and brass. (2,011, January 20). Retrieved from The Economist: Canada's tar sands: Muck and brass | The Economist
Reclaiming Alberta's Oil Sands. (2,013, October 19). Retrieved from Government of Alberta: Reclaiming Alberta's Oil Sands – Alberta Environment
TransCanada. (2,014, February 20). Myths & Facts. Retrieved from Keystone XL Pipeline: Myths & Facts | Keystone XL Pipeline