Another Door Closes on Bitumen

A body blow to heavy oil comes into effect in 2020 when the International Maritime Organization will mandate deep cuts to sulphur emissions. That's for starters.

By 2050, shipping giants will have to cut their emissions by half.

By itself, next year’s cap could prevent 150,000 premature deaths and millions of childhood asthma cases each year, according to researchpublished in the journal Nature. It will also cost tens of billions of dollars for an industry that’s dragged its feet on the environment.

Necessity being the mother of invention, some of the world’s most conservative companies are starting to experiment with cleaner fuels and cutting-edge technologies. 

Heavy oil, the cheap, garbage stuff, has been the fuel of choice for shipping. Anyone who lives along a coast will be familiar with the sight of ships getting underway, even cruise ships.

 A drop in heavy crude will make bitumen, more costly and less desirable than heavy crude, less able to command the above-market prices needed for production.

Bitumen is sometimes called "heavy crude oil." That's not true. It is in a category of its own, "extra heavy crude."

Heavy crude oil is closely related to natural bitumen from oil sands. Petroleum geologists categorize bitumen from oil sands as ‘extra-heavy oil’ due to its density of less than 10° °API.[8] Bitumen is the heaviest, thickest form of petroleum.[9] According to the U.S. Geological Survey, bitumen is further distinguished as extra-heavy oil with a higher viscosity (i.e., resistance to flow): “Natural bitumen, also called tar sands or oil sands, shares the attributes of heavy oil but is yet more dense and viscous. Natural bitumen is oil having a viscosity greater than 10,000 cP.”[8] “Natural bitumen (often called tar sands or oil sands) and heavy oil differ from light oils by their high viscosity (resistance to flow) at reservoir temperatures, high density (low API gravity), and significant contents of nitrogen, oxygen, and sulfur compounds and heavy-metal contaminants. They resemble the residuum from the refining of light oil. 

...Production, transportation, and refining of heavy crude oil present special challenges compared to light crude oil. Generally, a diluent is added at regular distances in a pipeline carrying heavy crude to facilitate its flow. Dilbit (diluted bitumen) is a means of transporting highly viscous hydrocarbon. Per the Alberta Oil Sands Bitumen Valuation Methodology, "Dilbit Blends" means "Blends made from heavy crudes and/or bitumens and a diluent usually condensate, for the purpose of meeting pipeline viscosity and density specifications, where the density of the diluent included in the blend is less than 800 kg/m3."[14][15]

...With current production and transportation methods, heavy crudes have a more severe environmental impact than light ones. With more difficult production comes the employment of a variety of enhanced oil recovery techniques, including steam flooding and tighter well spacing, often as close as one well per acre. Heavy crude oils also carry contaminants. For example, Orinoco extra heavy oil contains 4.5% sulfur as well as vanadium and nickel ...Heavy crude refining techniques may require more energy input though, so its environmental impact is presently more significant than that of lighter crude if the intended final products are light hydrocarbons (gasoline motor fuels). On the other hand, heavy crude is a better source for road asphalt mixes than light crude.

 Yes, bitumen is good - for producing road asphalt. It's also good, as our First Nations demonstrated, as pitch for sealing birch bark canoes.