This paper presents a study that shows the effect of key environmental and operational factors on the
Canadian Oil Sands operations for the production of synthetic crude oil (SCO) and commercial bitumen.
Using an integrated energy optimization model developed in the GAMS platform, the present study
determined the most economical oil schemes and energy commodities configurations at different CO2
capture levels, natural gas prices and steam-to-oil ratios (SOR). The sensitivity of these factors on the
different aspects of the Oil Sands operations are explicitly discussed in this work, i.e., SCO unitary energy
costs, energy commodity prices, energy plant’s configuration. According to the CO2 emission target
planned by the Canadian federal government for year 2020 (50 MT of CO2 eq/yr), 38% of CO2 emission
reduction with respect to the baseline emission is required from the Oil Sands industry. Similarly, the
natural gas price is the operational factor that affects the energy costs associated to every product
considered in this study. Furthermore, the SOR factor has a significant impact on the energy production
costs of SAGD SCO and commercial bitumen.