Albania included in the sand oil world map

TIRANA, April 7 – Albania has been included in the Research and Markets map on their offering of the Oil Sands Global Market Potential 2008, which provides details on production Technologies, Market Details, Project Cost Analysis, Major Alberta Projects Inventory, and, Market Outlook and Opportunities.
With most of the world’s known oil reserves concentrated in just a few countries, unconventional energy resources, such as oil sands, are now seen as a viable alternative to conventional oil and gas resources, and an attractive option for energy risk abatement.
Unconventional energy resources are resources that heretofore could not be recovered due to economic and/or technological barriers. The demand for oil sands is expected to reach 10.31 million bbl in 2008, up from 8.59 million barrels in 2003 at an average annual growth rate of 3.7 percent.
Oil sands are a combination of clay, sand, water, and bitumen. They are heavy, black and viscous, but can be mined and processed to extract the oil-rich bitumen, which is then refined into oil. While the energy properties and potential of oil sands have been recognized for centuries, there had been no significant attempt to develop the resource until the mid 1960s.
Oil sands are currently found in about 70 countries, including Albania, Canada, the former Soviet Union, Venezuela, Cuba, Indonesia, Brazil, Jordan, Madagascar, Trinidad, Colombia, Rumania, Spain, Portugal, Nigeria, and Argentina. The United States contains scattered deposits of oil sands.
Oil sands represent as much as 66 percent of the world’s total oil reserves.
Recently, investments in oil sands projects have become more attractive due to the increasing price of crude oil and technological advances that have enabled operators to bring down the cost of production. In less than 20 years of mining and upgrading, production costs have been cut in half.