(emphasis added) production may be as little as 0.2 m3, depending on how much is recycled”. Jeffrey Simpson of the Globe and Mail paraphrased this report, saying: “A cubic metre of oil, mined from the tar sands, needs two to 4.5 cubic metres of water.
The Athabasca River runs 1,231 kilometres from the Athabasca Glacier in west-central Alberta to Lake Athabasca in northeastern Alberta . The average annual flow just downstream of Fort McMurray is 633 cubic metres per second with its highest daily average measuring 1,200 cubic metres per second.
Water license allocations total about 1% of the Athabasca river average annual flow. Actual use in 2006 was about 0.4%. In addition, the Alberta government sets strict limits on how much water oil sands companies can remove from the Athabasca River. According to the Water Management Framework for the Lower Athabasca River, during periods of low river flow water consumption from the Athabasca River is limited to 1.3% of annual average flow. The province of Alberta is also looking into cooperative withdrawal agreements between oil sands operators.
Natural gas use and greenhouse gases
The processing of bitumen into synthetic crude requires energy, and currently this energy is generated by burning natural gas, which releases carbon dioxide. In 2007, the oil sands used around 1 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day, around 40% of Alberta’s total usage. Based on gas purchases, natural gas requirements are given by the Canadian Energy Resource Institute as 2.14 GJ (2.04 mcf) per barrel for cyclic steam stimulation projects, 1.08 GJ (1.03 mcf) per barrel for SAGD projects, 0.55 GJ (0.52 mcf) per barrel for bitumen extraction in mining operations not including upgrading or 1.54 GJ (1.47
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