Using the nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) method, scientists have learned to noninvasively determine the composition of petroleum bitumen in half an hour in the core itself (sample). The technology ...

Most of the reserves in the country are extra-heavy oil that’s tough to extract and generates more greenhouse gases.

Oil sands projects have long been characterized by high capital requirements and production costs. Even though production costs have drastically decreased over the past two years, most expansion ...

ONE of the bleakest scenes of man-made destruction is the strip mining of oil sands in the forests of Alberta, Canada. The sand is permeated with natural bitumen, a type of petroleum with the ...

It’s time for President Obama to approve the Keystone XL pipeline, said the Vancouver Sun in an editorial. The proposed pipeline, which would carry a bitumen mix extracted from Alberta’s oil sands to ...

EDMONTON, Alberta, July 26 (UPI) -- A series of leaks at a Canadian oil company's oil sands operation has called into question the safety of bitumen extracting methods. Canadian Natural Resources Ltd.

Imperial Oil Ltd., a Canadian arm of ExxonMobil, says the long-anticipated first barrel of bitumen extracted from its open-pit mining operations at the Kearl Lake Oil Sands project will come any day.

Whether or not anyone likes the idea of ripping up the landscape of northern Alberta or poking lots of well holes into it to access oil-rich sand deposits, the world—and more specifically the U.S. and ...

Vanadium is a largely obscure metal often used in making steel. It retains its hardness at high temperatures, so it’s ideal for making drill bits, engine turbines and other parts that generate heat.