About This Item

Share This Item

The AAPG/Datapages Combined Publications Database

AAPG Bulletin

Abstract


Volume: 64 (1980)

Issue: 5. (May)

First Page: 745

Last Page: 745

Title: Recent Activities in United States Tar Sand: ABSTRACT

Author(s): L. C. Marchant, J. J. Stosur, C. Q. Cupps

Article Type: Meeting abstract

Abstract:

The known tar sand resources of the United States consist of about 550 occurrences located in 22 states. Total oil-in-place in 39 of these occurrences, which have been submitted to some reservoir evaluation, is estimated between 23.7 billion and 32.7 billion bbl. At least 90% of this resource is located in Utah, where six deposits each contain from 1 to 16 billion bbl of oil. Other significant deposits occur in Texas, New Mexico, California, and Kentucky.

Current efforts to develop the United States tar sand resource include: reservoir characterization and evaluation work by industry, states, and the U.S. Department of Energy (D.O.E.); oil recovery and related research by industry, academia, and D.O.E.; and a few field mini-tests and pilots by industry and D.O.E.

The future supply role of the United States tar sand resource is necessarily vague because of the relatively small magnitude of the known resource, when compared to other potential synthetic fuels such as coal or oil shale, the lack of demonstrated applicable oil recovery technologies, and a resultant lack of recoverable reserve estimates.

End_of_Article - Last_Page 745------------

Copyright 1997 American Association of Petroleum Geologists