{"id":1140631,"date":"2019-09-26T14:41:27","date_gmt":"2019-09-26T19:41:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mining.com\/?p=1002988"},"modified":"2019-09-26T14:41:27","modified_gmt":"2019-09-26T19:41:27","slug":"first-bitumen-test-shipment-on-its-way-from-alberta-to-china","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/?p=1140631","title":{"rendered":"First bitumen test shipment on its way from Alberta to China"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A test shipment of bitumen oil from Alberta is on its way to China, but it didn\u2019t get to a British Columbia port by pipeline \u2013 it was moved by train through Prince Rupert in a semi-solid form commonly known as neatbit.<\/p>\n<div class='d-flex justify-content-center'>\n<div id='div-gpt-ad-1561499308230-0'><script>googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-1561499308230-0');});<\/script><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.meliusenergy.com\/\" >Melius Energy&nbsp;<\/a>in Calgary is not the first company to propose moving bitumen through BC in a semi-solid form by train, but it appears to be the first to actually land a potential customer in China and start shipping semi-solid bitumen by train.<\/p>\n<p>It has sent its first container, containing 130 barrels of bitumen, to China in a test shipment, and is currently building a new demonstration plant in Edmonton that turns diluted bitumen into a solid called TrueCrude.<\/p>\n<p>Using existing rail infrastructure, Melius says it could potentially move 120,000 barrels per day of pure bitumen in 100-unit trains through the Port of Prince Rupert.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPrince Rupert is expanding and they\u2019re looking for lot of containers to move through there,\u201d said Yuri Butler, Melius\u2019 manager of logistics and supply. \u201cThat\u2019s one of the reasons we\u2019re excited about working with Prince Rupert is they\u2019re looking for a lot of containers. We\u2019re looking to export a lot of containers.&nbsp;Right now there\u2019s a lot of containers coming into Prince Rupert, but there\u2019s not necessarily a lot leaving.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-pullquote alignright\">\n<blockquote>\n<p>Melius says it could potentially move 120,000 barrels per day of pure bitumen in 100-unit trains through the Port of Prince Rupert<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n<p>Moving bitumen in semi-solid form addresses environmental concerns associated with moving diluted bitumen by rail, pipeline and oil tanker.<\/p>\n<p>The concern is that an oil spill on either land or at sea could have serious environmental impacts. Shipping it in a solid, non-flammable form addresses those concerns.&nbsp;Should a container of TrueCrude ever crack open and end up in the ocean, it would float in one large block that could easily be recovered, the company says.<\/p>\n<p>Bitumen is a thick, tarry form of oil that has to be diluted with lighter oils \u2013 condensate \u2013 in order to transport it in liquid form.&nbsp;Melius developed a process, called BitCrude, whereby the diluent is taken back out of the diluted bitumen. The diluent can be recycled back to dilbit producers.<\/p>\n<p>The pure bitumen is heated so it can be poured into modified shipping containers, where it then solidifies when it cools. It is then shipped by train and put onto container ships. When it reaches its destination, the bitumen is heated to allow to flow into a refinery.<\/p>\n<p>Melius is currently building a demonstration diluent recovery plant in Edmonton. Butler said the plants could be built and sold as turn-key operations to oil producers in Alberta.<\/p>\n<p>Melius says transporting bitumen by train and container ship is cost competitive with pipeline and oil tanker transport. For one thing, there are no capital costs associated with the transportation, since the railway lines already exist.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re moving on existing rail lines, it\u2019s a safe product and we can efficiently move volume at scale,\u201d Butler said.<\/p>\n<p>There are also economies of scale associated with moving products by container ship, as opposed to oil tanker, since there are so many containers ships plying the ocean.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-pullquote alignright\">\n<blockquote>\n<p>There is a huge demand in China for bitumen, largely because China\u2019s Belt and Road project will require so much asphalt<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n<p>\u201cWhen you ship in a container, your costs to ship that container are very competitive because there\u2019s so much volume of containers moving,\u201d Butler said.<\/p>\n<p>He said there is a huge demand in China for bitumen, largely because China\u2019s Belt and Road project will require so much asphalt.<\/p>\n<p>Because of its high asphaltene content, bitumen is a highly desired feedstock for making asphalt. Roughly half of a barrel of bitumen can be turned into asphalt, with the rest being turned into other petroleum products.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe demand from Asia right now for heavy crude oil is growing and it\u2019s almost insatiable, especially with what\u2019s happening with Venezuela, and Iran and Saudi Arabia,\u201d Butler said.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey\u2019re looking for supply, and right now they\u2019re struggling to find it. Whereas here in Alberta we have quite a bit of supply and we\u2019re trying to export it to the U.S., where we\u2019re fighting to get a low dollar. If we can get this to the China, we can get a much better dollar and sell our premium product at a premium price.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>(This article first appeared in <a href=\"https:\/\/biv.com\/\"  rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\"Business in Vancouver (opens in a new tab)\">Business in Vancouver<\/a>)<\/em><\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Melia Energy says it has found a way to address concerns about an oil spill on either land or at sea.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":47,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[1035,369,4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1140631"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/47"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1140631"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1140631\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1140658,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1140631\/revisions\/1140658"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1140631"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1140631"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1140631"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}