Oil Sands Tailings Management Project

• Main Authors: Kotecha, P., Aumann, C., Godwalt, C.
• Format: Report
• Language: English
• Published: 2010
• Subjects: Oil Sands; In-situ; Tailings; Water; Tar sands; Process Affected Water (OSPW); Water Management; Alberta; Water Chemistry; Technology; TR-7; OSRIN; Athabasca River; Canada
• Online Access: https://era.library.ualberta.ca/items/b01a990c-7bc8-469b-94ce-1eb16cc4677b; https://doi.org/10.7939/R3FN10S80

The Oil Sands Leadership Initiative (OSLI) is a collaboration of five progressive oil sands operators (ConocoPhillips Canada, Nexen Inc., Statoil Canada, Suncor Energy Inc. and Total E&P Canada), with the Government of Alberta participating as an observer, working to advance the development of the oil sands industry in an environmentally, economically and socially responsible manner. The OSLI members identified Water Management as one of the target areas for a step change improvement in performance through collaborative efforts. Alberta WaterSMART was engaged to help develop and manage the various projects arising from the work in water management. One of the projects with the highest potential for achieving results was the development of a regional water management solution. Currently, oil sands producers in the Athabasca Region optimize water sourcing and disposal individually with a focus on fresh water conservation and economics. Mines source water from the Athabasca River with no discharge of process-affected water to the river, while Steam Assisted Gravity Drainage (SAGD) operators are considering distant saline aquifers for their source water requirements. The Tailings Water Management Project is Phase 1 of a four phase project to study the Environmental and Economic Footprint (EEF) benefit of collaborative solutions for Athabasca oil sands production water supply and disposal. The specific goal of this Project was to identify tailings treatment technologies which could be implemented today, and to develop and assess options for optimizing regional oil sands production water sourcing and disposal. Alternatives were split between sub-regionally integrated and regionally integrated solutions in which sub-regional systems used a common SAGD supply and mines managed their disposal needs independently, and regionally integrated solutions involving completely integrated mining/SAGD solutions by transferring tailings water to SAGD operations. Sub–regionally integrated SAGD water source alternatives included ...