page_title: McMurray Formation
section_title: Hydrocarbon Production
hierarchical_section_title: McMurray Formation / Hydrocarbon Production
caption_attribution_description: English: This is a picture of Syncrude's base mine. The yellow structures are the bases of pyramids made of sulphur - it is not economical for Syncrude to sell the sulphur so it stockpiles it instead. Behind that is the tailings pond, held in by what is recognized as the largest dam in the world. The extraction plant is just to the right of this photograph and most of the mine is to the left. Deutsch: Tagebau der Syncrude Canada Ltd. zur Gewinnung der Athabasca-Ölsande im Nordosten von Alberta, Kanada. Die gelben Gebilde sind Schwefelhalden. Der Schwefel entstammt dem im Ölsand enthaltenen Asphalt und wird dort gelagert, weil es unwirtschaftlich ist, ihn zu verkaufen. Dahinter befindet sich ein Absetzbecken für Schlämme aus der Ölsandaufbereitung (engl.: tailings pond). Das Werk, in dem die Extraktion des Asphalts stattfindet, ist unmittelbar rechts außerhalb des Bildes, während sich der größte Teil des Tagebaus links außerhalb des Bildes befindet.
context_page_description: The McMurray Formation is a stratigraphic unit of Early Cretaceous age of the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin in northeastern Alberta. It takes the name from Fort McMurray and was first described from outcrops along the banks of the Athabasca River 5 kilometres north of Fort McMurray by F.H. McLearn in 1917. It is a well-studied example of fluvial to estuarine sedimentation, and it is economically important because it hosts most of the vast bitumen resources of the Athabasca Oil Sands region.
context_section_description: Bitumen has been produced from the McMurray Formation in the Athabasca Oil Sands since 1967, at first by open-pit mining, and later from the subsurface as well, using in-situ techniques such as Steam-Assisted Gravity Drainage (SAGD). As of 2010, the output of oil sands production had reached more than 1.6 million barrels per day (250,000 m³/d); 53% of this was produced by surface mining and 47% by in-situ methods. The Alberta government estimates that production could reach 3.5 Mbbl/d (560,000 m³/d) by 2020 and possibly 5 Mbbl/d (790,000 m³/d) by 2030.
caption: McMurray Formation mined in Syncrude's Mildred Lake mine site
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