Page 40 - The Houstonian Review - Fall Issue 2022 | Sintia Solis

Here’s how Colombian Engineer Diego
Vargas Quintero found an ingenious way
to save Colombian State Oil Company 6
The million Dollars a week while minimizing
environmental impact: Petrochemical
plants create everyday products like
6 Million cosmetics, textiles, plastics and light
construction materials. Refineries also
process transportation fuels such as
gasoline, diesel and jet fuel. What few
Dollar Man people know, is how oil is extracted
from the ground and the impact a small
oil spill can create in the environment.

Diego Vargas Quintero Crude bitumen (Oil sand) is a thick,
sticky form of crude oil, so viscous that
it will not flow unless heated or diluted
with lighter hydrocarbons such as light
How Thinking Out Of The Box Saved crude oil or natural-gas condensate.
Colombia’s State Owned Oil Company These oil sands are recovered using
$6,000,000 Dollars A Week While two main methods: Drilling and mining.
Minimizing Environmental Impact! About 80% of all bitumen is found
between 100 and 800 meters below
the earth surface. These reserves are
too deep to be mined and are recovered
in place or “in situ”. One of the in situ
methods is called: Steam Assisted
Gravity Drainage, or SAGD Found in
formations consisting primarily of sand.

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