Firebag River
Encyclopedia
Firebag is a river in northern Alberta
and Saskatchewan
, Canada
. It gets its name from the traditional bags Aboriginals once used to carry fire-starting flints.
It originates in Firebag Lake in northwestern Saskatchewan, flows west into Alberta, and discharges in the Athabasca River
65 km north of Fort Mackay.
The length of the river is approximately 170 km, and the average discharge at the Athabasca River confluence is 20 m³/s.
The southern tract of Marguerite River Wildland protects part of the river valley, and a recreation park for Northeast Alberta Region located along the river has been proposed in 1980
Suncor has an SAGD
project in production (the Firebag in-situ operation), extracting bitumen from the tar sands
of the McMurray Formation
located in the river basin.
Alberta
Alberta is a province of Canada. It had an estimated population of 3.7 million in 2010 making it the most populous of Canada's three prairie provinces...
and Saskatchewan
Saskatchewan
Saskatchewan is a prairie province in Canada, which has an area of . Saskatchewan is bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, and on the south by the U.S. states of Montana and North Dakota....
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
. It gets its name from the traditional bags Aboriginals once used to carry fire-starting flints.
It originates in Firebag Lake in northwestern Saskatchewan, flows west into Alberta, and discharges in the Athabasca River
Athabasca River
The Athabasca River originates from the Columbia Glacier of the Columbia Icefield in Jasper National Park in Alberta, Canada...
65 km north of Fort Mackay.
The length of the river is approximately 170 km, and the average discharge at the Athabasca River confluence is 20 m³/s.
The southern tract of Marguerite River Wildland protects part of the river valley, and a recreation park for Northeast Alberta Region located along the river has been proposed in 1980
Suncor has an SAGD
Steam assisted gravity drainage
Steam Assisted Gravity Drainage is an enhanced oil recovery technology for producing heavy crude oil and bitumen. It is an advanced form of steam stimulation in which a pair of horizontal wells are drilled into the oil reservoir, one a few metres above the other...
project in production (the Firebag in-situ operation), extracting bitumen from the tar sands
Tar sands
Bituminous sands, colloquially known as oil sands or tar sands, are a type of unconventional petroleum deposit. The sands contain naturally occurring mixtures of sand, clay, water, and a dense and extremely viscous form of petroleum technically referred to as bitumen...
of the McMurray Formation
McMurray Formation
The McMurray Formation is a stratigraphical unit of Cretaceous age in the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin.It takes the name from Fort McMurray, and was first described in the outcrop occurring on the banks of the Athabasca River by F.H...
located in the river basin.