Oil sands refinery,Canada,at twilight. The water in the foreground is one of the settling pools used to dispose of waste material after processing. Oil sand is a mixture of sand,water and bitumen,and is mined from the surface using open-cast mining techniques. Around two tonnes of oil sand has to be processed to obtain a single barrel of crude oil. This is the Suncor processing plant,in the Athabasca Oil Sands,Alberta,Canada. In 2007,Suncor produced more than 260,000 barrels of oil a day. The Athabasca oil reserves are among the largest in the world |