Upgrading Heavy Oil and Bitumen

Since most refineries in Canada were designed to process light and medium crude oils, Canada's increasing production of heavy oil and bitumen has created a challenge. One solution is to refine the heavy compounds to create synthetic crude, a product similar to light crude oil.

Upgrading involves the use of temperature, pressure and catalysts to crack the big molecules into smaller ones. Adding hydrogen or removing carbon then creates hydrocarbons like those in lighter oil.

All crude oil and natural gas requires some processing to remove undesirable components before the commodity goes to market. Some processing facilities are basically just settling tanks for removing sand and water, while others are billion-dollar plants treating large volumes of bitumen.