The crude oil phenomenon has always been a big issue and the current situation does not prove different. Crude oil as a commodity is indisputably considered as one of the most utilized energy source as well as production input which enters into economic processes in the vast majority of countries over the world. The aim of this masters thesis is to provide a detailed description and analysis of the crude oil world market. Furthermore it not only gives a characteristics of the commodity and its energy use it also defines the market and its participants crude oil pricing crude oil trading and it also provides an analysis of the world oil demand as well as supply.The purpose of this masters thesis is among other to thoroughly analyze the crude oil prices development and introduce the contemporary trends present on the market. In the latter part of this thesis there will be a crude oil prices time series modelled and probable future price direction outlined. Moreover the thesis will reflect on the current oil prices drop with its possible effect on world economy.

The growing world population accompanied by an increase in GDP is effectively raising the demand for energy. One of the options are unconventional means of oil and gas, originating mainly from shales and oil sands. The goal of this thesis is to introduce the reader to unconventional means and their influence on international business. After a short introduction and definition an analysis of the situation in the U.S. follows, where the recent years have brought an increase in production from unconventional sources. The positive influence on the economy, employment and energetic security will be mentioned same as possible impacts on the environment. Furthermore the paper provides an analysis of the potential of repeating the U.S. shale revolution in other countries, with special focus on the EU. The success of unconventional sources opens the possibility of new trade routes, influence on the trade balance and the potential of influencing the whole gas market. However, it will also have an impact on current oil and gas producers. Considering the close bond between energetic security and politics, the thesis closes with an analysis of influences on the economy and politics of both -- current oil and gas producers and countries, which might be directly and indirectly affected by changes in the oil and gas market.

The overwhelming consensus of the world's climate scientists is that we must rapidly reduce our greenhouse emissions if we are to avoid catastrophic and irreversible climate change. Yet the proposed Keystone XL pipeline, which would carry tar sands oil that emits three to four times the carbon emissions of conventional gasoline across the U.S., is supported by a solid majority of Americans. This level of support for a project a proposal that would dramatically increase greenhouse gas emissions, pollute sensitive lands and water sources, and threaten the health and safety of communities along the way begs the question: what kind of information have Americans received about the pipeline? Relying on theoretical perspectives developed by scholars who examine power structures, ideology, and the political economy of the mass media, I analyze 177 national network and cable news broadcasts in order to determine what kind of information leading media sources provide to the public about the Keystone XL pipeline proposal and the context in which this information is presented. Content analysis of broadcast transcripts reveals that television news stations exhibit biased coverage that encourages viewers to support pipeline construction. Furthermore, television news stations marginalize environmental and social concerns and disproportionately rely on business and government sources for information. Finally, the dominant frame employed by the news media is informed by neoliberal ideology and offers no challenge to the preferences of corporate and government elites--including the continued dominance of the fossil fuel industry. This type of coverage affords viewers a very limited basis for understanding the environmental and ultimately social threats posed by Keystone XL.

<p> Triassic sandstones form rapidly eroding cliffs around much of the Minas Basin, Nova Scotia. The sand eroded from these cliffs is one major source of the modern intertidal sands. Wave erosion of the cliffs locally produces a small sand beach at the high tide level. </p> <p> Eight samples were examined using the Scanning Electron Microscope: two from the Triassic sandstones, and six from the high-tide beach below the cliffs. All samples contained rounded, as well as subrounded and subangular, quartz grains in the 0.5 - 1.00 mm size fraction. As the samples originated in the cliffs, abrasion by strong tidal currents cannot account for the rounded grain shape. </p> <p> All grains studied had suffered some degree of diagenesis in the form of a precipitation coat. This was generally thicker on the rounded grains than on the more angular ones. The Triassic sandstone grains generally illustrated upturned plates, semiparallel steps, conchoidal breaks and a fine V-shaped pattern. The high beach grains illustrated upturned plates, V-shaped patterns, conchoidal breaks, greater rounding of featu res present and arc-shaped steps. Wehrfritz (1973) studied quartz grains from intertidal sand bars in the Minas Basin. He concluded that grains were considerably rounded by intertidal processes, and the frequency of V-shapes increased with grain roundness. </p> <p> Although some rounding of the beach sands was inherited, wave and tidal action aided in rounding the features further. The initial rounding of the sand grains within the sandstones may have occurred during periods in the Triassic when they were exposed to wind or reworked in the lakes. </p> / Thesis / Bachelor of Arts (BA)

Fort McMurray has experienced significant environmental disruptions, raising concerns about chemical releases that affect the environment, particularly berries. This thesis explores the relationship between environmental factors and the nutritional quality of pin cherry (Prunus pensylvanica L.F.) and common blueberry (Vaccinium myrtilloides Michx) fruits and soil in Fort McMurray (reclaimed and natural lands). Samples were collected in August 2022 and analyzed for chemicals and quality variables. The results revealed concentration variations among samples, with hydrocarbons higher in reclaimed areas and blueberries than others and soil surpassing those in fruits. Copper and iron in fruits exceeded regulatory limits. A strong association between soil chemicals and alkylated hydrocarbons in fruits explained most differences. Soil trace elements and properties were primary environmental drivers, while hydrocarbons were secondary influencers, evident mainly in reclaimed berry environments. Antioxidant-focused nutritional quality in reclaimed berries was predominantly influenced by these key drivers in soil, requiring consistent monitoring.

Heavy oil production depends on the understanding of mechanical and flow properties of unconsolidated or weakly consolidated sands under different loading paths and boundary conditions. Reconstituted bitumen-free Athabasca oil-sands samples were used to investigate the geomechanics of a steam injection process such as the Steam Assisted Gravity Drainage (SAGD). Four stress paths have been studied in this work: triaxial compression, radial extension, pore pressure increase and isotropic compression. Absolute permeability, end-point relative permeability to oil & water (kro and krw), initial water saturation and residual oil saturation were measured while the samples deformed. Triaxial compression is a stress path of increasing mean stress while radial extension and pore pressure increase lead to decreasing mean stress. Pore pressure increase experiments were carried out for three initial states: equal axial and confining stresses, axial stress greater than confining stress and confining stress greater than axial stress. Pore pressure was increased under four boundary conditions: 1) constant axial and confining stress; 2) constant axial stress and zero radial strain; 3) zero axial strain and constant confining stress; and 4) zero axial and radial strain. These experiments were designed to mimic geologic conditions where vertical stress was either S1 or S3, the lateral boundary conditions were either zero strain or constant stress, and the vertical boundary conditions were either zero strain or constant stress. Triaxial compression caused a decrease in permeability as the sample compacted, followed by appreciable permeability enhancement during sample dilation. Radial extension led to sample dilation, shear failure and permeability increase from the beginning. The krw and kro increased by 40% and 15% post-compaction respectively for the samples corresponding to lower depths during triaxial compression. For these samples, residual oil saturation decreased by as much as 40%. For radial extension, the permeability enhancement decreased with depth and ranged from 20% to 50% while the residual oil saturation decreased by up to 55%. For both stress paths, more shear-enhanced permeability was observed for samples tested at lower pressures, implying that permeability enhancement is higher for shallower sands. The pore pressure increase experiments showed an increase of only 0-10% in absolute permeability except when the effective stress became close to zero. This could possibly have occurred due to steady state flow not being reached during absolute permeability measurement. The krw curves generally increased as the pore pressure was increased from 0 psi. The increase ranged from 5% to 44% for the different boundary conditions and differential stresses. The kro curves also showed an increasing trend for most of the cases. The residual oil saturation decreased by 40-60% for samples corresponding to shallow depths while it increased by 0-10% for samples corresponding to greater depths. The reservoirs with high differential stress are more conducive to favorable changes in permeability and residual oil saturation. These results suggested that a decreasing mean stress path is more beneficial for production increase than an increasing mean stress path. The unconsolidated sands are over-consolidated because of previous ice loading which makes the sand matrix stiffer. In this work, it was found that over-consolidation, as expected, decreased the porosity and permeability (40-50%) and increased the Young’s and bulk moduli of the sand. The result is sand which failed at higher than expected stress during triaxial compression. Overall, results show that lab experiments support increased permeability due to steam injection operations in heavy oil, and more importantly, the observed reduction in residual oil saturation implies SAGD induced deformation should improve recovery factors. / text

Gegenstand dieser Arbeit ist die Entwicklung und Untersuchung eines Aufbereitungsprozesses zur Gewinnung von Bitumen aus kanadischem Athabasca Ölsand, der im Tagebau gewonnen wurde. Es wird ein mechanisch-thermisches Verfahren zur Fest-Flüssig-Trennung eingesetzt. Dabei handelt es sich um vier Schritte: (1) Suspendierung des Ölsandes mit den organischen Lösungsmitteln, Toluol und n-Heptan, (2) Filterkuchenbildung, (3) Waschung des Filterkuchens mit Wechsel der Waschflüssigkeiten (gradierte Waschung) und (4) Dampfbeaufschlagung. Der Prozess stellt eine Alternative zur herkömmlichen Heißwasser-extraktion des Ölsandes dar. Die Nachteile der Heißwasserextraktion sind ökologische Probleme, ein hoher Energie- und Frischwasserbedarf. Die Ziele des Alternativprozesses sind die Minimierung des Wasser- und Energiebedarfs, Vermeidung schädlicher Abfallstoffe sowie die Maximierung der Bitumenausbeute. Als Produkte sollen feststofffreies Bitumen und rückstandsfreier, deponierbarer Feststoff gewonnen werden.

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 28-31, 1996 / Town and Country Hotel and Convention Center, San Diego, California / White Sands Missile Range (WSMR) is developing a new transportable telemetry system that consolidates various telemetry data collection functions currently being performed by separate instrumentation. The new system will provide higher data rate handling capability, reduced labor requirements, and more efficient operations support which will result in a reduction of mission support costs. Seven new systems are planned for procurement through Requirements Contracts. They will replace current mobile systems which are over 25 years old on a one-on-one basis. Regulation allows for a sixty-five percent overage on the contract and WSMR plans to make this contract available for use by other Major Range Test Facility Bases (MRTFBs). Separate line items in the contracts make it possible to vary the design to meet a specific system configuration. This paper describes both current and replacement mobile telemetry system

Thesis (MSc)--Stellenbosch University, 2011. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The Exxaro Namakwa Sands heavy mineral sands mine at Brand-se-Baai, on the west coast of South Africa, is an important source of income, development and job-creation in the region. However, this comes at a great environmental cost, as strip mining causes large scale destruction of ecosystems through the complete removal of vegetation and topsoil. This is particularly problematic in an environment, such as Namaqualand, where the arid and windy climate, as well as saline and nutrient-poor soils, hamper rehabilitation. These environmental constraints create the need to develop a site-specific rehabilitation program. At Namakwa Sands the objective of rehabilitation is to “rehabilitate and re-vegetate disturbed areas and establish a self-sustaining Strandveld vegetation cover in order to control dust generation, control wind and water erosion, as well as restore land capability. In general, vegetation will be rehabilitated to a minimum grazing standard capable of supporting small stock (sheep) grazing.” In order to achieve this Namakwa Sands conducted rehabilitation experiments with topsoil replacement, seeding of indigenous species and translocation of mature plants. Monitoring is an important part of the rehabilitation process as it allows rehabilitation practitioners to evaluate success and to adapt their management strategies and rehabilitation methods, as well as to evaluate and, if necessary, change their rehabilitation objectives. This study forms part of the monitoring process at Namakwa Sands. It assesses the success of sites that were experimentally rehabilitated in 2001 and a site that was rehabilitated in 2008, using current practice, in order to identify possible management requirements on rehabilitated sites as well as improvements on rehabilitation objectives, methods and monitoring. This study also tests the Landscape Function Analysis (LFA) as rehabilitation monitoring tool by correlating LFA indices with traditional measurements of biophysical variables or their surrogates. Results showed that experimental sites were not successful in returning vegetation cover and plant species richness to the required levels, but did achieve the grazing capacity objective. These sites will need adaptive management to achieve the vegetation cover and plant species richness objectives. The recently rehabilitated site achieved the three-year vegetation cover and plant species richness objectives, as well as the grazing capacity objective, within two years after rehabilitation. Namakwa Sands should therefore continue using the current rehabilitation method. However, rehabilitation should be done in multiple stages in future to decrease the mortality of nursery cuttings and to facilitate the return of late successional species to rehabilitated sites. The sustainability of small stock farming on rangeland with the grazing capacity that is identified as the minimum objective is questionable and this merits further investigation. LFA can be a useful tool to monitor nutrient cycling and soil stability at Namakwa Sands, provided that enough replicates are used. However, LFA cannot be used as is to assess water infiltration at Namakwa Sands, due to assumptions in the calculation of this index that do not hold for the Namaqualand environment. Landscape functioning should be monitored annually to complement vegetation surveys. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die Exxaro Namakwa Sands swaarminerale-sandmyn by Brand-se-Baai, aan die weskus van Suid-Afrika, is ‘n belangrike bron van inkomste, ontwikkeling en werkskepping in die streek. Daar is egter negatiewe omgewingsimpakte aan verbonde, aangesien die strookmyntegniek grootskaalse vernietiging van ekosisteme veroorsaak deur die algehele verwydering van die plantegroei en bogrond. Dit is veral problematies in ‘n omgewing, soos Namakwaland, waar die droë en winderige klimaat, asook die souterige en voedingstof-arme grond, rehabilitasie belemmer. Hierdie beperkings wat deur die omgewing veroorsaak word skep die behoefte om ‘n rehabilitasieprogram te ontwikkel wat spesifiek is tot die terrein. Die doel van rehabilitasie by Namakwa Sands is om te rehabiliteer en herplant op versteurde gebiede en om selfonderhoudende Strandveld plantbedekking te vestig om sodoende stofgenerering te beheer, om wind- en watererosie te beheer, en om grondgebruik-vermoë te herstel. In die algemeen sal plantbedekking gerehabiliteer word tot ‘n minimum weidingskapasiteit wat kleinveeweiding (skaapweiding) kan onderhou. Om dit te bereik het Namakwa Sands rehabilitasie-eksperimente uitgevoer met terugplasing van bogrond, saai van inheemse spesies en oorplanting van volwasse inheemse plante. Monitering is ‘n belangrike deel van die rehabilitasieproses, aangesien dit rehabilitasie-praktisyns in staat stel om sukses te evalueer en om bestuurstrategieë en rehabilitasiemetodes aan te pas, sowel as om rehabilitasiedoelwitte te evalueer en, indien nodig, aan te pas. Hierdie studie vorm deel van die moniteringsproses by Namakwa Sands. Dit assesseer die sukses op persele wat eksperimenteel gerehabiliteer is in 2001 en ‘n perseel wat in 2008 gerehabiliteer is, volgens die huidige praktyk, om moontlike bestuursbehoeftes op gerehabiliteerde persele en verbeteringe aan rehabilitasiedoelwitte, -metodes en –monitering te identifiseer. Hierdie studie toets ook die geskiktheid van die Landscape Function Analysis (LFA) as ‘n rehabilitasie-moniteringsinstrument deur LFA-indekse met tradisionele metings van biofisiese veranderlikes of hul surrogate te korreleer. Resultate dui daarop dat eksperimentele persele nie suksesvol was om plantbedekking en plantspesies-rykdom tot die vereiste vlakke te herstel nie, maar wel die weidingskapasiteit-doelwit bereik het. Hierdie persele benodig aanpassingsbestuur om plantbedekking- en plantspesiesrykdom-doelwitte te bereik. Die perseel wat onlangs gerehabiliteer is, het binne twee jaar na rehabilitasie die drie-jaar plantbedekking- en plantspesiesrykdom-doelwitte, sowel as die weidingskapasiteitdoelwit bereik. Daarom moet Namakwa Sands voortgaan om die huidige rehabilitasiemetode te gebruik. Rehabilitasie moet egter in die toekoms in veelvoudige stadiums gedoen word om die mortaliteit van kwekery-steggies te verminder en om die terugkeer van laatsuksessionele spesies na gerehabiliteerde persele te fasiliteer. Die volhoubaarheid van kleinveeboerdery op weiveld met die minimum vereiste weidingskapasiteit word betwyfel en vereis verdere ondersoek. LFA kan ‘n bruikbare instrument wees om siklering van voedingstowwe en grondstabiliteit te monitor by Namakwa Sands indien genoeg repliserings gebruik word. LFA kan egter nie in die huidige vorm gebruik word om waterinfiltrasie by Namakwa Sands te assesseer nie, aangesien daar aannames in die berekening van die indeks is wat nie juis is in die Namakwaland omgewing nie. Landskapfunksionering behoort jaarliks gemoniteer te word om plantopnames aan te vul.

This dissertation combines studies of aeolian bedforms and aeolian dune-field patterns to create a comprehensive set of tools that can be used in tandem (or separately) to extract information about climate change and landscape evolution, and to identify the controls on formation for specific modern dune fields or ancient aeolian sequences. The spatial distribution of surface processes, erosion/deposition rates, and lee face sorting on aeolian dunes are each a function of the incident angle. This correlation between stratification style and incidence angle can be used to develop a “toolbox” of methods based on measurements of key suites of parameters found in ancient aeolian deposits. Information obtained from the rock record can be used as input data for different kinds of numerical models. Regional-scale paleowind conditions can be used to validate paleoclimate and global circulation models. Understanding the natural variability in the Earth’s climate throughout its history can help predict future climate change. Reconstructed wind regimes and bedform morphologies can be used in numerical models of aeolian dune-field pattern evolution to simulate patterns analogous to those reconstructed from ancient aeolian systems. Much of the diversity of aeolian dune-field patterns seen in the real world is a function of the sediment supply and transport capacity, which in turn determine the sediment availability of the system. Knowledge of the sediment supply, availability, and transport capacity of aeolian systems can be used to predict the amount of sand in the system and where it might have migrated. This information can be extremely useful for development and production of oil and gas accumulations, where a discovery has been made but the spatial extent of the aeolian reservoir is unknown. / text