The Tyee: A report (.pdf) by a major global research group representing the world's 10 largest car buying markets has concluded that Canada's bitumen is one of the world's dirtiest oils due to its poor quality, low gravity and the vast amount of natural gas needed to enrich it.
Find original, larger image on page 9 of the report (.pdf).
The study for the International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT), which looked at the carbon intensity of oil from 3,000 fields now supplying European gasoline markets, also concluded that increasing reliance on dirty fuels will raise greenhouse gas emissions by 45 per cent above that of conventional oils...
The study calculated the amount of greenhouse gas emissions created by extracting, moving and refining different types of crude oil based on specific characteristics including weight, viscosity, purity, age of the field, leaks and the flaring of waste gases...
Like researchers at the University of Toronto and Calgary, the authors of the ICCT report characterized the quality of data on carbon intensity from the tar sands as poor. 'There is a lack of detailed data/transparency on tar sands projects.'...
For nearly 100 years engineers, scientists and politicians have referred to thick asphalt-like deposits of bitumen as tar sands... Industry rebranded the ultra-heavy crude oil as oil sands in the 1990s to make the sulfur-rich resource sound more accessible and clean.
