Oil sands from Alberta, Canada.The Myth:  The oil sands of Alberta, Canada, have as much oil as Saudi Arabia.

The Evidence: According to the Oil and Gas Journal, Saudi Arabia contains about 260 billion barrels of proven oil reserves, or about 20% of proven, conventional world oil reserves. A 2000 U.S. Geological Survey study suggested an additional recoverable oil resources ranging from 29 to 161 billion barrels to be discovered in Saudi Arabia by 2025.  Saudi Aramco, the state-owned national oil company of Saudi Arabia, estimates that the oil initially in place in that nation is in the range of 700 billion barrels.  Other oil industry analysts claim that the USGS and Saudi government estimates are overly optimistic.

Oil sands are deposits of natural bitumen, a thick, sticky form of crude oil, so heavy and viscous that it will not flow unless heated or diluted with lighter hydrocarbons. According to the Alberta Energy and Utilities Board, Alberta's oil sand deposits contain approximately 1.6 trillion barrels of natural bitumen, of which about 179 billion are recoverable with current technology. This makes Canada the second largest holder of recoverable reserves after Saudi Arabia. The total resource of 1.6 trillion barrels is close to the ultimately recoverable amount of conventional crude oil in the entire world. A common--but by no means unanimous--estimate of global potential recovery of conventional oil is between 2.0 and 2.5 trillion barrels. The recovery of oil sands has substantial environmental and social impacts, making the development of Alberta's oil sand resource a very hotly debated issue in Alberta and Canada as a whole.

The Verdict:  True.

Sources

• Government of Alberta, Alberta's Oil Sands, Accessed 24 June 2009
• World Energy Council, Survey of Energy Resources 2007, Natural Bitumen, Accessed 24 June 2009