Overview -
The Athabasca Oil Sands Project consists of the Muskeg River Mine and a pipeline to the Scotford Upgrader. Albian Sands operates the Muskeg River Mine and is a a joint venture of Shell Canada, Chevron Canada and Western Oil Sands Inc.
The project began operation in 2003 and has a projected mine life of 30 years. The Muskeg River Mine is an open pit operation that mines bitumen on a 121-square-kilometre lease, Lease 13. Muskeg River contains more than five billion barrels of mineable bitumen.
The mine is 75 km north of Fort McMurray, Alberta, 493 km northeast of Edmonton. A pipeline transports diluted bitumen from the mine to the upgrader near Edmonton.
Muskeg River is a truck and shovel operation, with semi-mobile crushers. About two tonnes of oil sands must be dug up, moved and processed to produce one barrel of oil. Roughly 75 per cent of the bitumen can be recovered from sand; processed sand has to be returned to the pit and the site reclaimed. Bitumen extraction is done at a plant on the mine site, and diluted bitumen is piped to the Scotford upgrader.
A natural gas-fired cogeneration plant at the Muskeg River Mine provides heat and electricity. Electricity not used on site is sold into the power market.
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