Lesson 9 - Unconventional Fossil Fuels Flashcards
What are the 4 primary unconventional fossil fuels?
Tar sands
Oil Shale
Shale Gas
Deepwater Oil
What are tar sands?
Mixture of clay, sand, water + bitumen
What is oil shale?
Oil bearing rocks
Permeable enough to allow direct pumping of oil
What is shale gas?
Natural gas trapped within fine-grained sedimentary rocks
What is deepwater oil?
Oil/Gas found well offshore + at considerable oceanic depth
How are tar sands extracted?
Mined + injected with steam
Tar loses viscosity
Oils can be pumped out
How is oil shale extracted?
Mining
Igniting - Light oil fractions pumped out
How is shale gas extracted?
Fracking
How is deepwater oil extracted?
Drilling from ocean rigs
How have conventional fuels caused unconventional demand to rise?
Finite supply
Extraction/Exploitation difficulty
Rising costs
Which other factors have influenced unconventional demand?
Reliability
Relative energy output
Global fossil fuel concentration
What are the characteristics of an unconventional fossil fuel?
Non-standard oil/gas source
Difficult + expensive extraction
