Oil sand bitumen is an important energy resource because of its abundant supply. The proven reserve in Canada is estimated to be about 173 billion barrels. Steam assisted gravity drainage (SAGD) is a new mining method that enables recovery of the bitumen in deep layers by injection of steam into the ground. Because the amount of bitumen minable by conventional surface mining methods is estimated to be only about 20% of the total reserve, in situ methods such as SAGD are increasingly important.
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