According to the Cambridge Energy Research Association, the annual output of heavy oil will increase at an annual rate of 150% to 300% in the next 25 years. In recent years, oil sands development has become a new bright spot in the world's energy. With the dual support of policy and technology, oil sands may become the world's largest source of oil supply in the future.

  The development and utilization of unconventional resources has become a worldwide topic. Unconventional resources that have been difficult to develop and have poor economic benefits have gradually entered people's vision. In particular, the cost reduction effect brought about by breakthroughs in oil sands mining technology in recent years has expanded the profit margins of oil sands mining. The world's major oil companies are focusing on North America and are racing to increase their R&D investment in oil sands development technology. The frequent transactions of global oil sands assets have effectively promoted the rapid development of the oil sands industry.

  In 1951, the first Athabasca Oil Sands Conference was held in Edmonton, Canada. At that time, Canadian researchers had successfully mastered the method of recovering and separating oil sands through experiments at the oil sands pilot plant in the north of McMurray. In 1998, the 7th International Seminar on Heavy Oil and Tar Sands, with the theme of "Heavy Oil-Important Energy in the 21st Century", attracted widespread attention from the global energy industry. In 2002, the oil sands reserves and production in Alberta, Canada increased significantly, highlighting the important role of oil sands in future energy.

     Oil sands resources are rich. 

       Under the current mining technology conditions, according to the study of the United States Geological Survey in 2004, the world's recoverable resources of oil sands are 103.51 billion tons, second only to 151.4 billion tons of recoverable resources of conventional oil. Oil sands resources are unevenly distributed around the world, mainly in North America, the former Soviet Union, Latin America and the Caribbean. Countries rich in resources include Canada, Venezuela, Russia, the United States, Nigeria, China, etc. Canada ranks first, with oil sands geological resources of 259.2 billion tons, accounting for 84% of the world's total oil sands geological resources. The former Soviet Union accounted for 10% of the total, and the United States, Venezuela, and Nigeria accounted for 3%, 2%, and 1% of the total respectively. 

      Canada is not only extremely rich in oil sands resources, but the exploration and development of oil sands is also at the forefront of the world. Oil sands resources are highly proven and have now entered the stage of large-scale commercial development. At present, 95% of the proven oil sands resources in the world are distributed in Canada, 80% of which are concentrated in the Alberta Basin, and the final potential recoverable reserves are 49 billion tons. After the proven reserves of oil sands resources, Canada's proven recoverable oil reserves in 2005 increased from 680 million tons to 24.5 billion tons, second only to Saudi Arabia, becoming the world's second largest oil storage country. The oil sands of the Alberta Basin are mainly distributed in Athabasca. The geological resources of the oil sands are 206 billion tons. The others are 20.5 billion tons of Pease River and 31.9 billion tons of Cold Lake, which are contained in the Lower Cretaceous sandstone and the Upper Devon. System to the Mississippi limestone and dolomite.

       Venezuela is one of the countries with the richest oil sands resources in the world, and its geological resources are about 6.8 billion cubic meters. Oil sands resources are mainly distributed in the famous Orinoco heavy oil belt in the eastern Venezuela Basin and heavy oil reservoirs in the Maracaibo Basin. Among them, the proven oil sands reserves in the Orinoco heavy oil belt are about 3.5 billion cubic meters. The Venezuelan government adopted tax reduction policies to support the development of the domestic oil sands industry in the early 21st century, reducing the current 67.7% tax on domestic oil operations to 34%, and also providing preferential policies for infrastructure construction in developed areas.

       Russia has abundant oil sands resources, and more detailed research on it began in the 1970s. Affected by the declining trend of conventional oil and gas production at that time, the researchers conducted a relatively in-depth study on oil sands resources, and established a system for the study of heavy oil and oil sands. The classification of heavy oil and oil sands is also different from that of the United Nations. Classification. Research shows that Russia’s oil sands resources are found in almost all of its petroliferous basins, with geological resources of about 30 billion cubic meters, 90% of which are potential oil sands resources concentrated in the uplift and fault zones of the ancient platform area. Such as Volga-Ural, Timan-Pechora, Ukraine's Primorye Caspian Basin, the Tunguska Basin of the Eastern Siberian Craton, etc.

       In the 1960s, due to the decline in domestic oil production in the United States, the supply of conventional oil was obviously insufficient, which prompted American oil companies to pay attention to the exploration and development of heavy oil and oil sands. The United States is also a country with relatively rich oil sands resources. According to estimates, oil sands resources are approximately 63 billion barrels, mainly concentrated in Utah, Alaska, Alabama, Texas, and California.

       China is rich in oil sands resources. According to the new round of oil and gas resource evaluation, the national oil sands geological resources are 5.9 billion cubic meters and the recoverable resources are 2.258 billion cubic meters, ranking fifth in the world. China’s oil sand resources are mainly distributed in large basins. Among them, the Junggar Basin, Tarim Basin, Qiangtang Basin, Qaidam Basin, Songliao Basin, Sichuan Basin, and Ordos Basin have oil sands oil geological resources of 5.292 billion cubic meters, occupying the whole country. 88.6% of the total resources. The distribution of oil sand resources in each basin is uneven, similar to the distribution characteristics of conventional oil and gas resources. Taking into account the oil sand resources and quality of each basin, the basins with large oil sand resources and development prospects are the Junggar Basin and Songliao Basin. Basin, Tarim Basin, Ordos Basin, Qaidam Basin and Sichuan Basin, etc. At present, China's oil sands are still in the stage of census and preliminary research. In recent years, with the continuous rise of oil prices, domestic oil companies, scientific research institutions, private enterprises and many other institutions have begun to shift their eyes to oil sands investigation, exploration and exploitation.

       Becoming a hot spot in the energy sector,

       oil sands oil is different from conventional oil in nature and has different burial depths, so the mining methods are very different. There are two main mining methods commonly used internationally: one is to use open-pit mining for oil sands that are closer to the ground. The second is to use in-situ thermal gas drive separation and recovery technology for deeply buried oil sands.

       At present, only Canadian oil sands mining has entered a large-scale commercialization stage in the world. This is determined by Canada’s rich oil sands reserves, better oil sands quality, superior mining conditions, and advanced mining and separation technologies. Oil sands mining plays an important role in Canada's oil and gas industry. On the one hand, technological advances have continuously reduced the cost of oil sand extraction, refining and initial processing. In the early stages of oil sands development, the supply cost exceeded US$35/barrel. With low oil prices and such high costs, it is difficult to profitably exploit oil sands. With the gradual breakthrough of technology, the complete cost of oil sands mining has steadily dropped from US$25.81/barrel in 1979 to US$12.64/barrel in 1999. The application of the latest technology has reduced the complete cost of oil sands mining to about $10 per barrel. On the other hand, rising international oil prices have also brought considerable economic benefits to oil sands mining, which has greatly stimulated the rapid development of the oil sands industry. In 2003 and 2004, Canada refined 400 million barrels of oil sands oil from the oil sands, and the oil sands production succession rate reached 162%. By the end of 2004, the cumulative production of oil sands oil was 4.7 billion barrels. Venezuela, the United States, Indonesia, Germany, Romania and other countries are also conducting oil sands mining analysis tests and mining, but they have not yet formed an economic scale.

       According to the Cambridge Energy Research Association, the annual output of heavy oil will increase at an annual rate of 150% to 300% in the next 25 years. In recent years, the development of oil sands has become a new bright spot in the world's energy resources. Countries have invested hugely to accelerate their industrialization process. With the dual support of policy and technology, oil sands may become the world's largest source of oil supply in the future. Although the environmental protection, energy consumption pressure, and insufficient infrastructure faced by oil sands development also restrict its vigorous development momentum, overall, the uncertainty of the oil sands mining industry is as great as its development hopes, and it will still become the future. A hot spot worth paying attention to in the world energy field for a period of time. In the next few years, with the continuous introduction and development of technology, the development of oil sands will move towards large-scale production, modernization of mining technology, low-temperature extraction, in-situ mining, and high-efficiency environmental protection.

       (Note to this website: Oil sands are sedimentary sands rich in natural asphalt. Therefore it is also called "tar sand". Oil sands are essentially a mixture of asphalt, sand, rich ore clay, and water. The asphalt content is 10-12%, minerals such as sand and clay account for 80-85%, and the remainder is 3-5% water. Oil sand asphalt oil with high density, high viscosity, high carbon-hydrogen ratio and high metal content. Sometimes it also refers to a kind of natural petroleum sand or sandstone after the light ends have been impregnated. Can be used to refine heavy oil and asphalt ) .