Albian Sands Energy Inc. is a

mining Mining is the Resource extraction, extraction of valuable geological materials and minerals from the surface of the Earth. Mining is required to obtain most materials that cannot be grown through agriculture, agricultural processes, or feasib ...

company which operates the Muskeg River Mine and Jack Pine Mine, an

oil sands Oil sands are a type of unconventional petroleum deposit. They are either loose sands, or partially consolidated sandstone containing a naturally occurring mixture of sand, clay, and water, soaked with bitumen (a dense and extremely viscous ...

mining project located north of

Fort McMurray Fort McMurray ( ) is an urban service area in the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo in Alberta, Canada. It is located in northeast Alberta, in the middle of the Athabasca oil sands, surrounded by boreal forest. It has played a significa ...

Alberta Alberta is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Canada. It is a part of Western Canada and is one of the three Canadian Prairies, prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to its west, Saskatchewan to its east, t ...

, Canada. It is a joint venture between

Shell Canada Shell Canada Limited () is the principal Canadian subsidiary of British energy major Shell plc and one of Canada's largest integrated oil companies. Exploration and production of oil, natural gas and sulphur is a major part of its business, as ...

(10%),

CNRL Canadian Natural Resources Limited, or CNRL or Canadian Natural is a senior Canadian oil and natural gas company that operates primarily in the Western Canadian provinces of British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba, with offshore op ...

(70%) and Chevron Canada (20%). The company's legal headquarters are located in the

Shell Centre The Shell Centre in London is the global headquarters of oil major Shell plc. It is located on Belvedere Road in the London Borough of Lambeth. It is a prominent feature on the South Bank of the River Thames near County Hall, and now forms th ...

Calgary Calgary () is a major city in the Canadian province of Alberta. As of 2021, the city proper had a population of 1,306,784 and a metropolitan population of 1,481,806 making it the third-largest city and fifth-largest metropolitan area in C ...

, Alberta. Albian Sands got its name from the Albian Boreal Sea, which during the

Albian The Albian is both an age (geology), age of the geologic timescale and a stage (stratigraphy), stage in the stratigraphic column. It is the youngest or uppermost subdivision of the Early Cretaceous, Early/Lower Cretaceous epoch (geology), Epoch/s ...

age of the

Cretaceous The Cretaceous ( ) is a geological period that lasted from about 143.1 to 66 mya (unit), million years ago (Mya). It is the third and final period of the Mesozoic Era (geology), Era, as well as the longest. At around 77.1 million years, it is the ...

(over 100 million years ago), moved over the McMurray sands and deposited a blanket of marine shale on its floor which trapped the hydrocarbons of the McMurray Formation. The oil sands resources of the Muskeg River Mine are a legacy of the Albian Sea. At full production, Albian Sands can produce of crude

bitumen Bitumen ( , ) is an immensely viscosity, viscous constituent of petroleum. Depending on its exact composition, it can be a sticky, black liquid or an apparently solid mass that behaves as a liquid over very large time scales. In American Engl ...

, a naturally occurring semi-solid form of crude oil. The mine product, diluted bitumen or ''

dilbit Dilbit (diluted bitumen) is a bitumen diluted with one or more lighter petroleum products, typically natural-gas condensates such as naphtha. Diluting bitumen makes it much easier to transport, for example in pipelines. Per the Alberta Oil Sands B ...

'', is sent to be upgraded at the

Scotford Upgrader The Shell Scotford Upgrader is an oilsand upgrader, a facility which processes crude bitumen from oil sands into a wide range of synthetic crude oils. The upgrader is owned by Athabasca Oil Sands Project (AOSP), a joint venture of Shell Canada, She ...

Fort Saskatchewan Fort Saskatchewan is a city along the North Saskatchewan River in Alberta, Canada. It is northeast of Edmonton, the provincial capital. It is part of the Edmonton Capital Region#Edmonton CMA, Edmonton census metropolitan area and one of 24 muni ...

. The Muskeg River Mine stands on a Shell Canada lease containing more than of mineable bitumen, of which it is expected to recover of bitumen over the next 30 years. The Muskeg River Mine, Jack Pine Mine and the Scotford Upgrader together comprise the "Athabasca Oil Sands Project (AOSP)". A proposed future mine expansion would increase production by 100,000 bbl/day. The (incremental) expansion project received regulatory approval in late 2006. At the mine site, the 175 megawatt MRM Cogeneration plant owned 70% by ATCO Power and 30% by

SaskPower Saskatchewan Power Corporation, trade name, operating as SaskPower, is the principal electric utility in Saskatchewan, Canada. Established in 1929 by the Saskatchewan#Government and politics, provincial government, it serves more than 550,000 cu ...

supplies process steam and electricity to the mine. 50% of the electricity produced is surplus to mine needs and is sold into the Alberta

power grid ''Power Grid'' is the English-language version of the second edition of the multiplayer German-style board game ''Funkenschlag'', designed by Friedemann Friese and first released in 2004. ''Power Grid'' was released by Rio Grande Games. I ...

. The Corridor Pipeline which transports diluted bitumen from the Muskeg River Mine to the Scotford Upgrader is owned by Inter Pipeline Ltd. To accommodate its workforce, the project has built a 2460-room "village" with service and recreation facilities. The project is using satellite based imaging to ensure transparent reporting of its land use.

References

{{coord, 57.3, -111.5, display=title, name=Albian Sands Oil companies of Canada Athabasca oil sands Joint ventures Marathon Oil Shell plc subsidiaries Chevron Corporation Companies based in Calgary Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo