Alberta's Crude Oil Industry
Most of the crude oil that is mined in Alberta is in the northern part.
Oil sands are crude deposits that are substantially heavier than other crude oils. Oil sands consist of sand, bitumen, mineral rich clays and water. Bitumen is a product of the oil sands that requires upgrading to synthetic crude oil or dilution with lighter hydrocarbons to make it transportable by pipelines and usable by refineries.
Crude oil being extracted from the oil mines in northern Alberta.
The Athabasca deposit is the largest reservoir of crude bitumen in the world.
The Athabasca deposit is the only large oil sands reservoir which is suitable for large-scale surface mining.
The Oil Sands Discovery Center in Fort McMurry is located in the heart of the world's biggest single crude oil deposit - the Athabasca Oil Sands.
Alberta's oil sands have been proven to contain some of the largest reserves of oil. About 168 billion barrels of crude oil are extracted from the oil sands every year. The Alberta crude oil sands are proven to be the worlds third largest supplier of crude oil, nest to Saudi Arabia and Venezuela.
If you want to learn more about Alberta's energy, go to this link: http://www.energy.alberta.ca/index.asp
Alberta's Farming Industry
Alberta has 1000's of acres of wheat and canola being grown in the summer months.
A grain elevators is a massive building that is equipped with machinery for loading, unloading, cleaning, mixing and storing grain. Grain elevators store grain until it can be shipped to another location either by a train or a tractor-trailer. There are 2 kinds of grain elevators: country elevators and terminal elevators. Country elevators can hold 25,000 to 100,000 bushels of grain while terminal elevators can hold up to 1 million bushels of grain. Most grain elevators are over 100 feet tall.
Each year, about 7.6 million tonnes of wheat is produced in the province – most of it being exported to other countries who demand our high quality grain.
Grain travels through a spout to get into the train carso that it can be shipped to other locations.
Alberta wheat is recognized for producing some of the best wheat in the world and wheat exports totaled $1.4 billion in 2010.
Alberta's Cattle Industry
Alberta has 40% of all the cattle that are in Canada. Cattle are used in the Calgary Stampede which is held every year. Most of the cattle farmers in southern Alberta have hundreds of acres of land for their plentiful supply of cattle. Most of the cattle that are raised in Alberta, arefor beef.
