History



The Romans called it gwitu-men (pertaining to pitch) or pixtu-men (bubbling pitch), converted, after the barbarian invasions to bitumen. The word passed into French, and then, after the Norman conquest of England in 1066, into English, where it was used interchangeably with tar for over a thousand years (though tar derives from coal, and bitumen from petroleum).

Early Applications

The earliest recorded use of something like bitumen was by the Sumerians, on the Euphrates river (near present-day Kuwait). followed by Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar used it for waterproofing and even as grouting for stone roads.

The use of bitumen spread further West, and the Bible records a bituminous substance (tar, asphalt or bitumen, depending on the translation) was used in building the Tower of Babel.

In 1595 Sir Walter Raleigh discovered a thick viscous lake in the jungles of Trinidad. This was to be the largest natural deposit of bitumen ever found and was used extensively until the mid 1970s.

In the late nineteenth century, however, bitumen began to be used for the major industrial uses common today, and with those began synthetic production. Shell began major bitumen production in the UK in 1920, after opening the Shell Haven refinery.

Definitions

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. Most heavy oil is found at the margins of geologic basins and is thought to be the residue of formerly light oil that has lost its light-molecular-weight components through degradation by bacteria, water-washing, and evaporation.

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.

Specification

Ash <1 14

mesh size 30-50mesh in Powder

0-10mm in Lump

Grades:

CH-109 Asphalt, Bitumen Grade

CH-110 Inking Grade

CH-108 Drilling Grade

Composition

Carbon 84 Min .(WT.PERCENT)

Sulphor 3 Min

Hydrogen 1.5 Min

Oxygen 1.09 Min

Nitorogen 1.02 Min

Toluene 21.85 Approx.

Solubity In CS2 39.53 +/- 1Min.

Solubity In Benzene 31 Min

Solubity In Methanol 0.5 Min

Solubity In Ethanol 1-2 Min

Miosture 0.05 Min

Softening Point 200+DEG. CEN. APPROX

Denisty (Srec. Grav. ) 0.070 gm per cubic centimeter

Viscosity Only in solution

Particle Size (Natural) 0-800 MM

Geographic Distribution

Distribution of the world's known recoverable oil resources and reserves by type. Technically recoverable oil in known heavy oil and natural bitumen accumulations is about equal to reserves of light oil (API gravity greater than 22°) in known conventional accumulations. BBO, billion barrels of oil.

In spite of an immense resource base, heavy oil and natural bitumen accounted for only about 15% of crude oil produced in 2006. Compared to light oil, these resources are generally more costly to produce and transport. Also, extra-heavy oil and natural bitumen must usually be upgraded by reducing their carbon content or adding hydrogen before they can be used as feedstock for a conventional refinery. The extra production, transportation, and upgrading costs explain why development and production of extra-heavy oil and bitumen are still limited. Their abundance, strategic geographic distribution, quality, and costs will shape their role in the future oil supply.

The Western Hemisphere has 69 percent of the world's technically recoverable heavy oil and 82 percent of the technically recoverable natural bitumen. In contrast, the Eastern Hemisphere has about 85 percent of the world's light oil reserves.

The estimated volume of technically recoverable heavy oil (434 billion barrels) and natural bitumen (651 billion barrels) in known accumulations is about equal to the Earth's remaining conventional

Region R.Factor RecoverableFactorBBO

North America0.1935.30.32530.9

South America 0.132657 0.09 0.1

W. Hemisphere 0.133010.32531

Africa 0.187.20.143

Europe 0.154.90.140.2

Middle East 0.1278.20.10

Asia 0.1429.60.1642.8

Russia 0.1313.40.1333.7

E. Hemisphere 0.13133.30.13119.7

World 434.3 650.7

Heavy oil and natural bitumen are present worldwide . Each category is dominated by a single extraordinary accumulation. The largest extra-heavy oil accumulation is the Venezuelan Orinoco heavy-oil belt, which contains 90 percent of the world's extra-heavy oil when measured on an in-place basis. Eighty-one percent of the world's known recoverable bitumen is in the Alberta, Canada, accumulation. Together the two deposits contain about 3,600 billion barrels of oil in place.

In addition to extra-heavy Orinoco oil, South America has an estimated 40 billion barrels of technically recoverable heavy oil, so that, in total, 61 percent of the known technically recoverable heavy oil is in South America.

Of the 35 billion barrels of heavy oil estimated to be technically recoverable in North America, about 7.7 billion barrels are assigned to known producing accumulations in the lower 48 States, and 7 billion barrels are assigned to the North Slope of Alaska.

The U.S. bitumen accumulations are largely in Utah. No U.S. accumulations are being produced commercially, although, in total, they are estimated to contain 6.1 billion barrels of recoverable bitumen.

Production Technology

In conventional production, reservoir pressure from gas and water associated with the oil is generally sufficient to cause light oil to flow to a production well. If natural reservoir pressure becomes depleted, then oil flow may be enhanced by injecting gas or water into the reservoir to push the residual oil to the production well.

Natural bitumen is so viscous that it is immobile in the reservoir. For oil sand deposits less than 225 feet deep, bitumen is recovered by mining the sands, then separating the bitumen from the reservoir rock by processing it with hot waters, and finally upgrading the natural bitumen onsite to a synthetic crude oil. In deeper oil sand deposits, where the bitumen is commonly less viscous, steam is injected into the reservoir to mobilize the oil for recovery by production wells. The product may be upgraded onsite or mixed with diluent and transported to an upgrading facility.

Projections

Natural bitumen is extracted from Alberta oil sand deposits that are too deep to surface mine by a process known as steam-assisted gravity drainage (SAGD); . Production wells could produce in excess of 2,000 barrels of bitumen per day. In 2001, about 735,000 barrels per day were extracted by mining and by in-situ production from Alberta oil sands, accounting for 36 percent of Canada's total oil production. Projected 2011 production is 2.2 million barrels per day (Alberta Energy and Utility Board, 2002, Alberta's Reserves 2001 and Supply/Demand Outlook 2002-2011, Statistical Series 2002-98, p. 2-8 to 2-9).

Iran has abundant natural bitumen which is being mined in the recent years and are exported.

Gilsonite Natural Asphalt , Natural Bitumen

HS.CODE: 27149000

Gilsonite ( Natural Bitume ) are available various types of packing :

Application: Asphalt, Bitumen road construction, Water Profing, Drilling Cement, Modify Bitumen, Inking, Ink, Print Ink and etc

Packing: Powder: 25kgs 2ply bags laminated, Lump: 1000Kgs Jumbo Bags.

Resources

www.benzeneinternational.com

www.bitumenexchange.com