What is the Carbon footprint of tar-sands oil? -- Greenpeace

[JohnWxy]

http://www.greenpeace.org/raw/content/france/presse/dossiers-documents/dirtyoil.pdf#page=14


Given that Canada contributes the largest amount of foreign crude to US refineries, the
US National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) recently analyzed GHG emissions from
bitumen and synthetic crude (well-to-wheel) using real 2006 data from Imperial Oil and
Syncrude. Due to “energy intensive extraction processes and pre-processing,” the NETL
concluded that bitumen had “GHG emissions several times greater than that for extraction
of conventional crude oil.”67 The NETL also revealed that emissions from the extraction of
bitumen and synthetic crude easily trumped the footprint of most major US imports.68
Comprehensive NETL studies also show that well-to-tank emissions for jet fuel made from
bitumen were three times greater than those from US domestic crude. Diesel fuel refined
from Canadian bitumen also had the highest well-to-tank emissions of any imported
fuel, or 144 per cent greater than those of domestic crude. As a consequence, the NETL
concluded that $19 billion worth of imported Canadian bitumen used for diesel fuel created
twice as many as emissions as domestic crude oil.69 An unpublished 2009 Carnegie
Mellon study on life-cycle emissions of unconventional fuels concluded that “if the US has
a goal to enhance energy security while seeking to reduce the environmental impacts of
petroleum, coal to liquid, oil shale, and oil sands are not the right path.”70

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http://tonto.eia.doe.gov/energy_in_brief/foreign_oil_dependence.cfm">In the U.S. we import 66% of the oil we consume.

http://tonto.eia.doe.gov/energy_in_brief/foreign_oil_dependence.cfm">20% of U.S. oil imorts comes form canada.

U.S. major sources of imported oil.

Canada (20.1%)
Saudi Arabia (13.8%)
Venezuela (10.5%)
Nigeria (8.8%)
Mexico (8.7%)

http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/cabs/Canada/Oil.html">In 2008, oil sands production represented approximately half of Canada’s total crude oil production.

Most of the GHG emissions from gasoline are the result of it's combustion process (~65%). so 35% would be attributable to the GHG emissions generated in the recovery of the crude oil.

IF tar sands oil is 2 times as dirty as oil taken from deep geologic formations, that would mean that tar sands oil adds 4.6% to the GHG emissions profile of gasoline in the U.S. (.1 x 2 x .35 X .66= .046). If tar sands oil is 3 tmes as dirty, that would add 6.9% to gasoline's GHG profile (in the U.S.).


As far as I know, nobody is adjusting gasoline's GHG emissions for Athabasca tar sands oil.

[Turbineguy]

1. I just knew there was a reason

the wingnuts love it. It pollutes more!