title: Oil sands

text: This is a very new and experimental method that combines a vertical air injection well with a horizontal production well. The process ignites oil in the reservoir and creates a vertical wall of fire moving from the "toe" of the horizontal well toward the "heel", which burns the heavier oil components and upgrades some of the heavy bitumen into lighter oil right in the formation. Historically fireflood projects have not worked out well because of difficulty in controlling the flame front and a propensity to set the producing wells on fire. However, some oil companies feel the THAI method will be more controllable and practical, and have the advantage of not requiring energy to create steam.


title: Oil sands

text: Advocates of this method of extraction state that it uses less freshwater, produces 50% less greenhouse gases, and has a smaller footprint than other production techniques.


title: Oil sands

text: Petrobank Energy and Resources has reported encouraging results from their test wells in Alberta, with production rates of up to per well, and the oil upgraded from 8 to 12 API degrees.


title: Oil sands

text: The company hopes to get a further 7-degree upgrade from its CAPRI (controlled atmospheric pressure resin infusion) system, which pulls the oil through a catalyst lining the lower pipe.


title: Oil sands

text: After several years of production in situ, it has become clear that current THAI methods do not work as planned. Amid steady drops in production from their THAI wells at Kerrobert, Petrobank has written down the value of their THAI patents and the reserves at the facility to zero. They have plans to experiment with a new configuration they call "multi-THAI," involving adding more air injection wells.


title: Oil sands

text: This is an experimental method that employs a number of vertical air injection wells above a horizontal production well located at the base of the bitumen pay zone. An initial Steam Cycle similar to CSS is used to prepare the bitumen for ignition and mobility. Following that cycle, air is injected into the vertical wells, igniting the upper bitumen and mobilizing (through heating) the lower bitumen to flow into the production well. It is expected that COGD will result in water savings of 80% compared to SAGD.


title: Oil sands

text: Approximately of energy is needed to extract a barrel of bitumen and upgrade it to synthetic crude. As of 2006, most of this is produced by burning natural gas. Since a barrel of oil equivalent is about , its EROEI is 5–6. That means this extracts about 5 or 6 times as much energy as is consumed. Energy efficiency is expected to improve to an average of of natural gas or of energy per barrel by 2015, giving an EROEI of about 6.5.


title: Oil sands

text: Alternatives to natural gas exist and are available in the oil sands area. Bitumen can itself be used as the fuel, consuming about 30–35% of the raw bitumen per produced unit of synthetic crude. Nexen's Long Lake project will use a proprietary deasphalting technology to upgrade the bitumen, using asphaltene residue fed to a gasifier whose syngas will be used by a cogeneration turbine and a hydrogen producing unit, providing all the energy needs of the project: steam, hydrogen, and electricity. Thus, it will produce syncrude without consuming natural gas, but the capital cost is very high.


title: Oil sands

text: Shortages of natural gas for project fuel were forecast to be a problem for Canadian oil sands production a few years ago, but recent increases in US shale gas production have eliminated much of the problem for North America. With the increasing use of hydraulic fracturing making US largely self-sufficient in natural gas and exporting more natural gas to Eastern Canada to replace Alberta gas, the Alberta government is using its powers under the NAFTA and the Canadian Constitution to reduce shipments of natural gas to the US and Eastern Canada, and divert the gas to domestic Alberta use, particularly for oil sands fuel. The natural gas pipelines to the east and south are being converted to carry increasing oil sands production to these destinations instead of gas. Canada also has huge undeveloped shale gas deposits in addition to those of the US, so natural gas for future oil sands production does not seem to be a serious problem. The low price of natural gas as the result of new production has considerably improved the economics of oil sands production.


title: Oil sands

text: The extra-heavy crude oil or crude bitumen extracted from oil sands is a very viscous semisolid form of oil that does not easily flow at normal temperatures, making it difficult to transport to market by pipeline. To flow through oil pipelines, it must either be upgraded to lighter synthetic crude oil (SCO), blended with diluents to form dilbit, or heated to reduce its viscosity.


title: Oil sands

text: In the Canadian oil sands, bitumen produced by surface mining is generally upgraded on-site and delivered as synthetic crude oil. This makes delivery of oil to market through conventional oil pipelines quite easy. On the other hand, bitumen produced by the in-situ projects is generally not upgraded but delivered to market in raw form. If the agent used to upgrade the bitumen to synthetic crude is not produced on site, it must be sourced elsewhere and transported to the site of upgrading. If the upgraded crude is being transported from the site by pipeline, and additional pipeline will be required to bring in sufficient upgrading agent. The costs of production of the upgrading agent, the pipeline to transport it and the cost to operate the pipeline must be calculated into the production cost of the synthetic crude.


title: Oil sands

text: Upon reaching a refinery, the synthetic crude is processed and a significant portion of the upgrading agent will be removed during the refining process. It may be used for other fuel fractions, but the end result is that liquid fuel has to be piped to the upgrading facility simply to make the bitumen transportable by pipeline. If all costs are considered, synthetic crude production and transfer using bitumen and an upgrading agent may prove economically unsustainable.


title: Oil sands

text: When the first oil sands plants were built over 50 years ago, most oil refineries in their market area were designed to handle light or medium crude oil with lower sulfur content than the 4–7% that is typically found in bitumen. The original oil sands upgraders were designed to produce a high-quality synthetic crude oil (SCO) with lower density and lower sulfur content. These are large, expensive plants which are much like heavy oil refineries. Research is currently being done on designing simpler upgraders which do not produce SCO but simply treat the bitumen to reduce its viscosity, allowing to be transported unblended like conventional heavy oil.


title: Oil sands

text: Western Canadian Select, launched in 2004 as a new heavy oil stream, blended at the Husky Energy terminal in Hardisty, Alberta,


title: Oil sands

text: is the largest crude oil stream coming from the Canadian oil sands and the benchmark for emerging heavy, high TAN (acidic) crudes.<ref name="TMX/Shorcan Energy Brokers"></ref>


title: Oil sands

text: Western Canadian Select (WCS) is traded at Cushing, Oklahoma, a major oil supply hub connecting oil suppliers to the Gulf Coast, which has become the most significant trading hub for crude oil in North America. While its major component is bitumen, it also contains a combination of sweet synthetic and condensate diluents, and 25 existing streams of both conventional and unconventional oil making it a syndilbit— both a dilbit and a synbit.


title: Oil sands

text: The first step in upgrading is vacuum distillation to separate the lighter fractions. After that, de-asphalting is used to separate the asphalt from the feedstock. Cracking is used to break the heavier hydrocarbon molecules down into simpler ones. Since cracking produces products which are rich in sulfur, desulfurization must be done to get the sulfur content below 0.5% and create sweet, light synthetic crude oil.


title: Oil sands

text: In 2012, Alberta produced about of crude bitumen from its three major oil sands deposits, of which about was upgraded to lighter products and the rest sold as raw bitumen. The volume of both upgraded and non-upgraded bitumen is increasing yearly. Alberta has five oil sands upgraders producing a variety of products. These include:


title: Oil sands

text: Modernized and new large refineries such as are found in the Midwestern United States and on the Gulf Coast of the United States, as well as many in China, can handle upgrading heavy oil themselves, so their demand is for non-upgraded bitumen and extra-heavy oil rather than SCO. The main problem is that the feedstock would be too viscous to flow through pipelines, so unless it is delivered by tanker or rail car, it must be blended with diluent to enable it to flow. This requires mixing the crude bitumen with a lighter hydrocarbon diluent such as condensate from gas wells, pentanes and other light products from oil refineries or gas plants, or synthetic crude oil from oil sands upgraders to allow it to flow through pipelines to market.


title: Oil sands

text: Typically, blended bitumen contains about 30% natural gas condensate or other diluents and 70% bitumen. Alternatively, bitumen can also be delivered to market by specially designed railway tank cars, tank trucks, liquid cargo barges, or ocean-going oil tankers. These do not necessarily require the bitumen be blended with diluent since the tanks can be heated to allow the oil to be pumped out.


title: Oil sands

text: The demand for condensate for oil sands diluent is expected to be more than by 2020, double 2012 volumes. Since Western Canada only produces about of condensate, the supply was expected to become a major constraint on bitumen transport. However, the recent huge increase in US tight oil production has largely solved this problem, because much of the production is too light for US refinery use but ideal for diluting bitumen. The surplus American condensate and light oil is being exported to Canada and blended with bitumen, and then re-imported to the US as feedstock for refineries. Since the diluent is simply exported and then immediately re-imported, it is not subject to the US ban on exports of crude oil. Once it is back in the US, refineries separate the diluent and re-export it to Canada, which again bypasses US crude oil export laws since it is now a refinery product. To aid in this process, Kinder Morgan Energy Partners is reversing its Cochin Pipeline, which used to carry propane from Edmonton to Chicago, to transport of condensate from Chicago to Edmonton by mid-2014; and Enbridge is considering the expansion of its Southern Lights pipeline, which currently ships of diluent from the Chicago area to Edmonton, by adding another .


title: Oil sands

text: Although Venezuelan extra-heavy oil is less viscous than Canadian bitumen, much of the difference is due to temperature. Once the oil comes out of the ground and cools, it has the same difficulty in that it is too viscous to flow through pipelines. Venezuela is now producing more extra heavy crude in the Orinoco oil sands than its four upgraders, which were built by foreign oil companies over a decade ago, can handle. The upgraders have a combined capacity of , which is only half of its production of extra-heavy oil. In addition Venezuela produces insufficient volumes of naphtha to use as diluent to move extra-heavy oil to market. Unlike Canada, Venezuela does not produce much natural gas condensate from its own gas wells, and unlike Canada, it does not have easy access to condensate from new US shale gas production. Since Venezuela also has insufficient refinery capacity to supply its domestic market, supplies of naptha are insufficient to use as pipeline diluent, and it is having to import naptha to fill the gap. Since Venezuela also has financial problems – as a result of the country's economic crisis -, and political disagreements with the US government and oil companies, the situation remains unresolved.


title: Oil sands

text: Heavy crude feedstock needs pre-processing before it is fit for conventional refineries, although heavy oil and bitumen refineries can do the pre-processing themselves. This pre-processing is called "upgrading", the key components of which are as follows:


title: Oil sands

text: As carbon rejection is very inefficient and wasteful in most cases, catalytic hydrocracking is preferred in most cases. All these processes take large amounts of energy and water, while emitting more carbon dioxide than conventional oil.


title: Oil sands

text: Catalytic purification and hydrocracking are together known as hydroprocessing. The big challenge in hydroprocessing is to deal with the impurities found in heavy crude, as they poison the catalysts over time. Many efforts have been made to deal with this to ensure high activity and long life of a catalyst. Catalyst materials and pore size distributions are key parameters that need to be optimized to deal with this challenge and varies from place to place, depending on the kind of feedstock present.


title: Oil sands

text: There are four major oil refineries in Alberta which supply most of Western Canada with petroleum products, but as of 2012 these processed less than 1/4 of the approximately of bitumen and SCO produced in Alberta. Some of the large oil sands upgraders also produced diesel fuel as part of their operations. Some of the oil sands bitumen and SCO went to refineries in other provinces, but most of it was exported to the United States. The four major Alberta refineries are:


title: Oil sands

text: The $8.5-billion Sturgeon Refinery, a fifth major Alberta refinery, is under construction near Fort Saskatchewan with a completion date of 2017.


title: Oil sands

text: The Pacific Future Energy project proposed a new refinery in British Columbia that would process bitumen into fuel for Asian and Canadian markets. Pacific Future Energy proposes to transport near-solid bitumen to the refinery using railway tank cars.


title: Oil sands

text: Most of the Canadian oil refining industry is foreign-owned. Canadian refineries can process only about 25% of the oil produced in Canada. Canadian refineries, outside of Alberta and Saskatchewan, were originally built for light and medium crude oil. With new oil sands production coming on production at lower prices than international oil, market price imbalances have ruined the economics of refineries which could not process it.


title: Oil sands

text: Prior to 2013, when China surpassed it, the United States was the largest oil importer in the world. Unlike Canada, the US has hundreds of oil refineries, many of which have been modified to process heavy oil as US production of light and medium oil declined. The main market for Canadian bitumen as well as Venezuelan extra-heavy oil was assumed to be the US. The United States has historically been Canada's largest customer for crude oil and products, particularly in recent years. American imports of oil and products from Canada grew from in 1981 to in 2013 as Canada's oil sands produced more and more oil, while in the US, domestic production and imports from other countries declined. However, this relationship is becoming strained due to physical, economic and political influences. Export pipeline capacity is approaching its limits; Canadian oil is selling at a discount to world market prices; US demand for crude oil and product imports has declined because of US economic problems; and US oil domestic unconventional oil production (shale oil production from fracking is growing rapidly. The US resumed export of crude oil in 2016; as of early 2019, the US produced as much oil as it consumed, with shale oil displacing Canadian imports.


title: Oil sands

text: For the benefit of oil marketers, in 2004 Western Canadian producers created a new benchmark crude oil called Western Canadian Select, (WCS), a bitumen-derived heavy crude oil blend that is similar in its transportation and refining characteristics to California, Mexico Maya, or Venezuela heavy crude oils. This heavy oil has an API gravity of 19–21 and despite containing large amounts of bitumen and synthetic crude oil, flows through pipelines well and is classified as "conventional heavy oil" by governments. There are several hundred thousand barrels per day of this blend being imported into the US, in addition to larger amounts of crude bitumen and synthetic crude oil (SCO) from the oil sands.


title: Oil sands

text: The demand from US refineries is increasingly for non-upgraded bitumen rather than SCO. The Canadian National Energy Board (NEB) expects SCO volumes to double to around by 2035, but not keep pace with the total increase in bitumen production. It projects that the portion of oil sands production that is upgraded to SCO to decline from 49% in 2010 to 37% in 2035. This implies that over of bitumen will have to be blended with diluent for delivery to market.


title: Oil sands

text: Demand for oil in Asia has been growing much faster than in North America or Europe. In 2013, China replaced the United States as the world's largest importer of crude oil, and its demand continues to grow much faster than its production. The main impediment to Canadian exports to Asia is pipeline capacity – The only pipeline capable of delivering oil sands production to Canada's Pacific Coast is the Trans Mountain Pipeline from Edmonton to Vancouver, which is now operating at its capacity of supplying refineries in B.C. and Washington State. However, once complete, the Northern Gateway pipeline and the Trans Mountain expansion currently undergoing government review are expected to deliver an additional to to tankers on the Pacific coast, from where they could deliver it anywhere in the world. There is sufficient heavy oil refinery capacity in China and India to refine the additional Canadian volume, possibly with some modifications to the refineries. In recent years, Chinese oil companies such as China Petrochemical Corporation (Sinopec), China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC), and PetroChina have bought over $30 billion in assets in Canadian oil sands projects, so they would probably like to export some of their newly acquired oil to China.


title: Oil sands

text: The world's largest deposits of bitumen are in Canada, although Venezuela's deposits of extra-heavy crude oil are even bigger. Canada has vast energy resources of all types and its oil and natural gas resource base would be large enough to meet Canadian needs for generations if demand was sustained. Abundant hydroelectric resources account for the majority of Canada's electricity production and very little electricity is produced from oil.


title: Oil sands

text: The National Energy Board (NEB) reported in 2013, that if oil prices are above US$100, Canada would have more than enough energy to meet its growing needs. The excess oil production from the oil sands could be exported. The major importing country would probably continue to be the United States, although before the developments in 2014, there was increasing demand for oil, particularly heavy oil, from Asian countries such as China and India.


title: Oil sands

text: Canada has abundant resources of bitumen and crude oil, with an estimated remaining ultimate resource potential of 54 billion cubic metres (340 billion barrels). Of this, oil sands bitumen accounts for 90 per cent. Alberta currently accounts for all of Canada's bitumen resources. "Resources" become "reserves" only after it is proven that economic recovery can be achieved. At 2013 prices using current technology, Canada had remaining oil reserves of 27 billion m (170 billion bbls), with 98% of this attributed to oil sands bitumen. This put its reserves in third place in the world behind Venezuela and Saudi Arabia. At the much lower prices of 2015, the reserves are much smaller.


title: Oil sands

text: The costs of production and transportation of saleable petroleum from oil sands is typically significantly higher than from conventional global sources. Hence the economic viability of oil sands production is more vulnerable to the price of oil. The price of benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) oil at Cushing, Oklahoma above US$100/bbl that prevailed until late 2014 was sufficient to promote active growth in oil sands production. Major Canadian oil companies had announced expansion plans and foreign companies were investing significant amounts of capital, in many cases forming partnerships with Canadian companies. Investment had been shifting towards in-situ steam-assisted gravity drainage (SAGD) projects and away from mining and upgrading projects, as oil sands operators foresee better opportunities from selling bitumen and heavy oil directly to refineries than from upgrading it to synthetic crude oil. Cost estimates for Canada include the effects of the mining when the mines are returned to the environment in "as good as or better than original condition". Cleanup of the end products of consumption are the responsibility of the consuming jurisdictions, which are mostly in provinces or countries other than the producing one.


title: Oil sands

text: The Alberta government estimated that in 2012, the supply cost of oil sands new mining operations was $70 to $85 per barrel, whereas the cost of new SAGD projects was $50 to $80 per barrel. These costs included capital and operating costs, royalties and taxes, plus a reasonable profit to the investors. Since the price of WTI rose to $100/bbl beginning in 2011, production from oil sands was then expected to be highly profitable assuming the product could be delivered to markets. The main market was the huge refinery complexes on the US Gulf Coast, which are generally capable of processing Canadian bitumen and Venezuelan extra-heavy oil without upgrading.


title: Oil sands

text: The Canadian Energy Research Institute (CERI) performed an analysis, estimating that in 2012 the average plant gate costs (including 10% profit margin, but excluding blending and transport) of primary recovery was $30.32/bbl, of SAGD was $47.57/bbl, of mining and upgrading was $99.02/bbl, and of mining without upgrading was $68.30/bbl. Thus, all types of oil sands projects except new mining projects with integrated upgraders were expected to be consistently profitable from 2011 onward, provided that global oil prices remained favourable. Since the larger and more sophisticated refineries preferred to buy raw bitumen and heavy oil rather than synthetic crude oil, new oil sands projects avoided the costs of building new upgraders. Although primary recovery such as is done in Venezuela is cheaper than SAGD, it only recovers about 10% of the oil in place versus 60% or more for SAGD and over 99% for mining. Canadian oil companies were in a more competitive market and had access to more capital than in Venezuela, and preferred to spend that extra money on SAGD or mining to recover more oil.


title: Oil sands

text: Then in late 2014 the dramatic rise in U.S. production from shale formations, combined with a global economic malaise that reduced demand, caused the price of WTI to drop below $50, where it remained as of late 2015.


title: Oil sands

text: In 2015, the Canadian Energy Research Institute (CERI) re-estimated the average plant gate costs (again including 10% profit margin) of SAGD to be $58.65/bbl, and 70.18/bbl for mining without upgrading. Including costs of blending and transportation, the WTI equivalent supply costs for delivery to Cushing become US$80.06/bbl for SAGD projects, and US$89.71/bbl for a standalone mine.


title: Oil sands

text: In this economic environment, plans for further development of production from oil sands have been slowed or deferred,


title: Oil sands

text: Production of synthetic crude from mining operations may continue at a loss because of the costs of shutdown and restart, as well as commitments to supply contracts. During the 2020 Russia–Saudi Arabia oil price war, the price of Canadian heavy crude dipped below $5 per barrel.


title: Oil sands

text: Oil sands production forecasts released by the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP), the Alberta Energy Regulator (AER), and the Canadian Energy Research Institute (CERI) are comparable to National Energy Board (NEB) projections, in terms of total bitumen production. None of these forecasts take into account probable international constraints to be imposed on combustion of all hydrocarbons in order to limit global temperature rise, giving rise to a situation denoted by the term "carbon bubble". Ignoring such constraints, and also assuming that the price of oil recovers from its collapse in late 2014, the list of currently proposed projects, many of which are in the early planning stages, would suggest that by 2035 Canadian bitumen production could potentially reach as much as 1.3 million m/d (8.3 million barrels per day) if most were to go ahead. Under the same assumptions, a more likely scenario is that by 2035, Canadian oil sands bitumen production would reach 800,000 m/d (5.0 million barrels/day), 2.6 times the production for 2012. The majority of the growth would likely occur in the in-situ category, as in-situ projects usually have better economics than mining projects. Also, 80% of Canada's oil sands reserves are well-suited to in-situ extraction, versus 20% for mining methods.


title: Oil sands

text: An additional assumption is that there would be sufficient pipeline infrastructure to deliver increased Canadian oil production to export markets. If this were a limiting factor, there could be impacts on Canadian crude oil prices, constraining future production growth. Another assumption is that US markets will continue to absorb increased Canadian exports. Rapid growth of tight oil production in the US, Canada's primary oil export market, has greatly reduced US reliance on imported crude. The potential for Canadian oil exports to alternative markets such as Asia is also uncertain. There are increasing political obstacles to building any new pipelines to deliver oil in Canada and the US. In November 2015, U.S. President Barack Obama rejected the proposal to build the Keystone XL pipeline from Alberta to Steele City, Nebraska.


title: Oil sands

text: In the absence of new pipeline capacity, companies are increasingly shipping bitumen to US markets by railway, river barge, tanker, and other transportation methods. Other than ocean tankers, these alternatives are all more expensive than pipelines.


title: Oil sands

text: A shortage of skilled workers in the Canadian oil sands developed during periods of rapid development of new projects. In the absence of other constraints on further development, the oil and gas industry would need to fill tens of thousands of job openings in the next few years as a result of industry activity levels as well as age-related attrition. In the longer term, under a scenario of higher oil and gas prices, the labor shortages would continue to get worse. A potential labor shortage can increase construction costs and slow the pace of oil sands development.


title: Oil sands

text: The skilled worker shortage was much more severe in Venezuela because the government controlled oil company PDVSA fired most of its heavy oil experts after the Venezuelan general strike of 2002–03, and wound down the production of Orimulsion, which was the primary product from its oil sands. Following that, the government re-nationalized the Venezuelan oil industry and increased taxes on it. The result was that foreign companies left Venezuela, as did most of its elite heavy oil technical experts. In recent years, Venezuela's heavy oil production has been falling, and it has consistently been failing to meet its production targets.


title: Oil sands

text: As of late 2015, development of new oil sand projects were deterred by the price of WTI below US$50, which is barely enough to support production from existing operations. Demand recovery was suppressed by economic problems that may continue indefinitely to bedevil both the European Community and China. Low-cost production by OPEC continued at maximum capacity, efficiency of production from U.S. shales continued to improve, and Russian exports were mandated even below cost of production, as their only source of hard currency. There is also the possibility that there will emerge an international agreement to introduce measures to constrain the combustion of hydrocarbons in an effort to limit global temperature rise to the nominal 2 °C that is consensually predicted to limit environmental harm to tolerable levels. Rapid technological progress is being made to reduce the cost of competing renewable sources of energy. Hence there is no consensus about when, if ever, oil prices paid to producers may substantially recover.


title: Oil sands

text: A detailed academic study of the consequences for the producers of the various hydrocarbon fuels concluded in early 2015 that a third of global oil reserves, half of gas reserves and over 80% of current coal reserves should remain underground from 2010 to 2050 in order to meet the target of 2 °C. Hence continued exploration or development of reserves would be extraneous to needs. To meet the 2 °C target, strong measures would be needed to suppress demand, such as a substantial carbon tax leaving a lower price for the producers from a smaller market. The impact on producers in Canada would be far larger than in the U.S. Open-pit mining of natural bitumen in Canada would soon drop to negligible levels after 2020 in all scenarios considered because it is considerably less economic than other methods of production.


title: Oil sands

text: In their 2011 commissioned report entitled "Prudent Development: Realizing the Potential of North America's Abundant Natural Gas and Oil Resources," the National Petroleum Council, an advisory committee to the U.S. Secretary of Energy, acknowledged health and safety concerns regarding the oil sands which include "volumes of water needed to generate issues of water sourcing; removal of overburden for surface mining can fragment wildlife habitat and increase the risk of soil erosion or surface run-off events to nearby water systems; GHG and other air emissions from production."


title: Oil sands

text: Oil sands extraction can affect the land when the bitumen is initially mined, water resources by its requirement for large quantities of water during separation of the oil and sand, and the air due to the release of carbon dioxide and other emissions. Heavy metals such as vanadium, nickel, lead, cobalt, mercury, chromium, cadmium, arsenic, selenium, copper, manganese, iron and zinc are naturally present in oil sands and may be concentrated by the extraction process. The environmental impact caused by oil sand extraction is frequently criticized by environmental groups such as Greenpeace, Climate Reality Project, Pembina Institute, 350.org, MoveOn.org, League of Conservation Voters, Patagonia, Sierra Club, and Energy Action Coalition. In particular, mercury contamination has been found around oil sands production in Alberta, Canada. The European Union has indicated that it may vote to label oil sands oil as "highly polluting". Although oil sands exports to Europe are minimal, the issue has caused friction between the EU and Canada. According to the California-based Jacobs Consultancy, the European Union used inaccurate and incomplete data in assigning a high greenhouse gas rating to gasoline derived from Alberta's oilsands. Also, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Nigeria and Russia do not provide data on how much natural gas is released via flaring or venting in the oil extraction process. The Jacobs report pointed out that extra carbon emissions from oil-sand crude are 12 percent higher than from regular crude, although it was assigned a GHG rating 22% above the conventional benchmark by EU.


title: Oil sands

text: In 2014 results of a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences showed that official reports on emissions were not high enough. Report authors noted that, "emissions of organic substances with potential toxicity to humans and the environment are a major concern surrounding the rapid industrial development in the Athabasca oil sands region (AOSR)." This study found that tailings ponds were an indirect pathway transporting uncontrolled releases of evaporative emissions of three representative polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH)s (phenanthrene, pyrene, and benzo(a)pyrene) and that these emissions had been previously unreported.


title: Oil sands

text: The Alberta government computes an Air Quality Health Index (AQHI) from sensors in five communities in the oil sands region, operated by a "partner" called the Wood Buffalo Environmental Association (WBEA). Each of their 17 continuously monitoring stations measure 3 to 10 air quality parameters among carbon monoxide (CO), hydrogen sulfide (), total reduced sulfur (TRS), Ammonia (), nitric oxide (NO), nitrogen dioxide (), nitrogen oxides (NO), ozone (), particulate matter (PM2.5), sulfur dioxide (), total hydrocarbons (THC), and methane/non-methane hydrocarbons (/NMHC). These AQHI are said to indicate "low risk" air quality more than 95% of the time. Prior to 2012, air monitoring showed significant increases in exceedances of hydrogen sulfide () both in the Fort McMurray area and near the oil sands upgraders. In 2007, the Alberta government issued an environmental protection order to Suncor in response to numerous occasions when ground level concentration for ) exceeded standards. The Alberta Ambient Air Data Management System (AAADMS) of the Clean Air Strategic Alliance (aka CASA Data Warehouse) records that, during the year ending on 1 November 2015, there were 6 hourly reports of values exceeding the limit of 10 ppb for , and 4 in 2013, down from 11 in 2014, and 73 in 2012.


title: Oil sands

text: In September 2015, the Pembina Institute published a brief report about "a recent surge of odour and air quality concerns in northern Alberta associated with the expansion of oilsands development", contrasting the responses to these concerns in Peace River and Fort McKay. In Fort McKay, air quality is actively addressed by stakeholders represented in the WBEA, whereas the Peace River community must rely on the response of the Alberta Energy Regulator. In an effort to identify the sources of the noxious odours in the Fort McKay community, a Fort McKay Air Quality Index was established, extending the provincial Air Quality Health Index to include possible contributors to the problem: , TRS, and THC. Despite these advantages, more progress was made in remediating the odour problems in the Peace River community, although only after some families had already abandoned their homes. The odour concerns in Fort McKay were reported to remain unresolved.


title: Oil sands

text: A large part of oil sands mining operations involves clearing trees and brush from a site and removing the overburden— topsoil, muskeg, sand, clay and gravel – that sits atop the oil sands deposit. Approximately 2.5 tons of oil sands are needed to produce one barrel of oil (roughly of a ton).


title: Oil sands

text: As a condition of licensing, projects are required to implement a reclamation plan. The mining industry asserts that the boreal forest will eventually colonize the reclaimed lands, but their operations are massive and work on long-term timeframes. As of 2013, about of land in the oil sands region have been disturbed, and of that land is under reclamation. In March 2008, Alberta issued the first-ever oil sands land reclamation certificate to Syncrude for the parcel of land known as Gateway Hill approximately north of Fort McMurray. Several reclamation certificate applications for oil sands projects are expected within the next 10 years.


title: Oil sands

text: Between 2 and 4.5 volume units of water are used to produce each volume unit of synthetic crude oil in an "ex-situ" mining operation. According to Greenpeace, the Canadian oil sands operations use of water, twice the amount of water used by the city of Calgary. However, in SAGD operations, 90–95% of the water is recycled and only about 0.2 volume units of water is used per volume unit of bitumen produced.


title: Oil sands

text: For the Athabasca oil sand operations water is supplied from the Athabasca River, the ninth longest river in Canada. The average flow just downstream of Fort McMurray is with its highest daily average measuring . Oil sands industries water license allocations totals about 1.8% of the Athabasca river flow. Actual use in 2006 was about 0.4%. In addition, according to the Water Management Framework for the Lower Athabasca River, during periods of low river flow water consumption from the Athabasca River is limited to 1.3% of annual average flow.


title: Oil sands

text: In December 2010, the Oil Sands Advisory Panel, commissioned by former environment minister Jim Prentice, found that the system in place for monitoring water quality in the region, including work by the Regional Aquatic Monitoring Program, the Alberta Water Research Institute, the Cumulative Environmental Management Association and others, was piecemeal and should become more comprehensive and coordinated.


title: Oil sands

text: The production of bitumen and synthetic crude oil emits more greenhouse gases than the production of conventional crude oil. A 2009 study by the consulting firm IHS CERA estimated that production from Canada's oil sands emits "about 5% to 15% more carbon dioxide, over the "well-to-wheels" (WTW) lifetime analysis of the fuel, than average crude oil." Author and investigative journalist David Strahan that same year stated that IEA figures show that carbon dioxide emissions from the oil sands are 20% higher than average emissions from the petroleum production.


title: Oil sands

text: A Stanford University study commissioned by the EU in 2011 found that oil sands crude was as much as 22% more carbon-intensive than other fuels.


title: Oil sands

text: Greenpeace says the oil sands industry has been identified as the largest contributor to greenhouse gas emissions growth in Canada, as it accounts for 40 million tons of emissions per year.


title: Oil sands

text: According to the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers and Environment Canada the industrial activity undertaken to produce oil sands make up about 5% of Canada's greenhouse gas emissions, or 0.1% of global greenhouse gas emissions. It predicts the oil sands will grow to make up 8% of Canada's greenhouse gas emissions by 2015. While the production industrial activity emissions per barrel of bitumen produced decreased 26% over the decade 1992–2002, total emissions from production activity were expected to increase due to higher production levels. As of 2006, to produce one barrel of oil from the oil sands released almost of greenhouse gases with total emissions estimated to be per year by 2015. A study by IHS CERA found that fuels made from Canadian oil sands resulted in significantly lower greenhouse gas emissions than many commonly cited estimates. A 2012 study by Swart and Weaver estimated that if only the economically viable reserve of oil sands was burnt, the global mean temperature would increase by 0.02 to 0.05 °C. If the entire oil-in-place of 1.8 trillion barrels were to be burnt, the predicted global mean temperature increase is 0.24 to 0.50 °C. Bergerson et al. found that while the WTW emissions can be higher than crude oil, "the lower emitting oil sands cases can outperform higher emitting conventional crude cases".


title: Oil sands

text: To offset greenhouse gas emissions from the oil sands and elsewhere in Alberta, sequestering carbon dioxide emissions inside depleted oil and gas reservoirs has been proposed. This technology is inherited from enhanced oil recovery methods. In July 2008, the Alberta government announced a C$2 billion fund to support sequestration projects in Alberta power plants and oil sands extraction and upgrading facilities.


title: Oil sands

text: In November 2014, Fatih Birol, the chief economist of the International Energy Agency, described additional greenhouse gas emissions from Canada's oil sands as "extremely low". The IEA forecasts that in the next 25 years oil sands production in Canada will increase by more than , but Dr. Birol said "the emissions of this additional production is equal to only 23 hours of emissions of China — not even one day." The IEA is charged with responsibility for battling climate change, but Dr. Birol said he spends little time worrying about carbon emissions from oil sands. "There is a lot of discussion on oil sands projects in Canada and the United States and other parts of the world, but to be frank, the additional CO2 emissions coming from the oil sands is extremely low." Dr. Birol acknowledged that there is tremendous difference of opinion on the course of action regarding climate change, but added, "I hope all these reactions are based on scientific facts and sound analysis."


title: Oil sands

text: In 2014, the U.S. Congressional Research Service published a report in preparation for the decision about permitting construction of the Keystone XL pipeline. The report states in part: "Canadian oil sands crudes are generally more GHG emission-intensive than other crudes they may displace in U.S. refineries, and emit an estimated 17% more GHGs on a life-cycle basis than the average barrel of crude oil refined in the United States".


title: Oil sands

text: According to Natural Resources Canada (NRCan), by 2017, the 23 percent increase in GHG emissions in Canada from 2005 to 2017, was "largely from increased oil sands production, particularly in-situ extraction".


title: Oil sands

text: There is conflicting research on the effects of the oil sands development on aquatic life. In 2007, Environment Canada completed a study that shows high deformity rates in fish embryos exposed to the oil sands. David W. Schindler, a limnologist from the University of Alberta, co-authored a study on Alberta's oil sands' contribution of aromatic polycyclic compounds, some of which are known carcinogens, to the Athabasca River and its tributaries. Scientists, local doctors, and residents supported a letter sent to the Prime Minister in September 2010 calling for an independent study of Lake Athabasca (which is downstream of the oil sands) to be initiated due to the rise of deformities and tumors found in fish caught there.


title: Oil sands

text: The bulk of the research that defends the oil sands development is done by the Regional Aquatics Monitoring Program (RAMP), whose steering committee is composed largely of oil and gas companies. RAMP studies show that deformity rates are normal compared to historical data and the deformity rates in rivers upstream of the oil sands.


title: Oil sands

text: In 2007, it was suggested that wildlife has been negatively affected by the oil sands; for instance, moose were found in a 2006 study to have as high as 453 times the acceptable levels of arsenic in their systems, though later studies lowered this to 17 to 33 times the acceptable level (although below international thresholds for consumption).


title: Oil sands

text: Concerns have been raised concerning the negative impacts that the oil sands have on public health, including higher than normal rates of cancer among residents of Fort Chipewyan. However, John O'Connor, the doctor who initially reported the higher cancer rates and linked them to the oil sands development, was subsequently investigated by the Alberta College of Physicians and Surgeons. The College later reported that O'Connor's statements consisted of "mistruths, inaccuracies and unconfirmed information".


title: Oil sands

text: In 2010, the Royal Society of Canada released a report stating that "there is currently no credible evidence of environmental contaminant exposures from oil sands reaching Fort Chipewyan at levels expected to cause elevated human cancer rates."


title: Oil sands

text: In August 2011, the Alberta government initiated a provincial health study to examine whether a link exists between the higher rates of cancer and the oil sands emissions.


title: Oil sands

text: In a report released in 2014, Alberta's Chief Medical Officer of Health, Dr. James Talbot, stated that "There isn't strong evidence for an association between any of these cancers and environmental exposure [to oil sands]." Rather, Talbot suggested that the cancer rates at Fort Chipewyan, which were slightly higher compared with the provincial average, were likely due to a combination of factors such as high rates of smoking, obesity, diabetes, and alcoholism as well as poor levels of vaccination.


title: Cindy Cash

text: Cash is the daughter of singer Johnny Cash and his first wife, Vivian Liberto. When she was a child, the family lived in Casitas Springs, California. The couple divorced when she was nine years old. Her siblings include singer Rosanne Cash.


title: Cindy Cash

text: Cash performed with her father and her stepmother, June Carter Cash. Her first duet with him as part of his show came when she was 16, and she also sang with him in his last performance. For two years, she sang in the group The Next Generation, which included Loretta Lynn's daughter Peggy, Conway Twitty's daughter Kathy, and George Jones' and Tammy Wynette's daughter Georgette. After she retired from entertaining, she operated an antique store in Ridgeland, Mississippi.


title: Cindy Cash

text: In 1997, Crown Publishing Group published her book, "The Cash Family Scrapbook", which contains a variety of material about (and written by) her and members of her family. She began sorting material with a book in mind in 1985 and underwent starts and stops thereafter. The story began with her parents' marriage and continued up to the time of the book's publication.


title: Cindy Cash

text: When she was 18, Cash married her high school sweetheart. After they divorced, she and her daughter moved to Hendersonville, Tennessee, to be near her father. Her second husband was singer-songwriter Marty Stuart, whom she met when both were 21. They were married from 1983 to 1988. In 2003, she married Eddie Panetta, who died in a motorcycle accident in 2009.


title: Unit vector

text: In mathematics, a unit vector in a normed vector space is a vector (often a spatial vector) of length 1. A unit vector is often denoted by a lowercase letter with a circumflex, or "hat", as in formula_1 (pronounced "v-hat").


title: Unit vector

text: The term direction vector, commonly denoted as d, is used to describe a unit vector being used to represent spatial direction and relative direction. 2D spatial directions are numerically equivalent to points on the unit circle


title: Unit vector

text: where |u| is the norm (or length) of u. The term "normalized vector" is sometimes used as a synonym for "unit vector".


title: Unit vector

text: Unit vectors are often chosen to form the basis of a vector space, and every vector in the space may be written as a linear combination of unit vectors.


title: Unit vector

text: Unit vectors may be used to represent the axes of a Cartesian coordinate system. For instance, the standard unit vectors in the direction of the "x", "y", and "z" axes of a three dimensional Cartesian coordinate system are


title: Unit vector

text: They form a set of mutually orthogonal unit vectors, typically referred to as a standard basis in linear algebra.


title: Unit vector

text: They are often denoted using common vector notation (e.g., i or formula_4) rather than standard unit vector notation (e.g., formula_5). In most contexts it can be assumed that i, j, and k, (or formula_6 formula_7 and formula_8) are versors of a 3-D Cartesian coordinate system. The notations formula_9, formula_10, formula_11, or formula_12, with or without hat, are also used, particularly in contexts where i, j, k might lead to confusion with another quantity (for instance with index symbols such as "i", "j", "k", which are used to identify an element of a set or array or sequence of variables).


title: Unit vector

text: When a unit vector in space is expressed in Cartesian notation as a linear combination of i, j, k, its three scalar components can be referred to as direction cosines. The value of each component is equal to the cosine of the angle formed by the unit vector with the respective basis vector. This is one of the methods used to describe the orientation (angular position) of a straight line, segment of straight line, oriented axis, or segment of oriented axis (vector).


title: Unit vector

text: The vectors formula_13 and formula_16 are functions of formula_26 and are "not" constant in direction. When differentiating or integrating in cylindrical coordinates, these unit vectors themselves must also be operated on. The derivatives with respect to formula_27 are:


title: Unit vector

text: The unit vectors appropriate to spherical symmetry are: formula_31, the direction in which the radial distance from the origin increases; formula_32, the direction in which the angle in the "x"-"y" plane counterclockwise from the positive "x"-axis is increasing; and formula_33, the direction in which the angle from the positive "z" axis is increasing. To minimize redundancy of representations, the polar angle formula_34 is usually taken to lie between zero and 180 degrees. It is especially important to note the context of any ordered triplet written in spherical coordinates, as the roles of formula_16 and formula_33 are often reversed. Here, the American "physics" convention is used. This leaves the azimuthal angle formula_37 defined the same as in cylindrical coordinates. The Cartesian relations are:


title: Unit vector

text: The spherical unit vectors depend on both formula_37 and formula_34, and hence there are 5 possible non-zero derivatives. For a more complete description, see Jacobian matrix and determinant. The non-zero derivatives are:


title: Unit vector

text: In general, a coordinate system may be uniquely specified using a number of linearly independent unit vectors formula_48 (the actual number being equal to the degrees of freedom of the space). For ordinary 3-space, these vectors may be denoted formula_49. It is nearly always convenient to define the system to be orthonormal and right-handed:


title: Unit vector

text: where formula_52 is the Kronecker delta (which is 1 for "i" = "j", and 0 otherwise) and formula_53 is the Levi-Civita symbol (which is 1 for permutations ordered as "ijk", and −1 for permutations ordered as "kji").


title: Unit vector

text: A unit vector in formula_54 was called a right versor by W. R. Hamilton, as he developed his quaternions formula_55. In fact, he was the originator of the term "vector", as every quaternion formula_56 has a scalar part "s" and a vector part "v". If "v" is a unit vector in formula_54, then the square of "v" in quaternions is –1. Thus by Euler's formula, formula_58 is a versor in the 3-sphere. When "θ" is a right angle, the versor is a right versor: its scalar part is zero and its vector part "v" is a unit vector in formula_54.


title: Ingrid Pitt

text: Ingrid Pitt (born Ingoushka Petrov; 21 November 193723 November 2010) was a Polish-British actress and writer best known for her work in horror films of the 1970s.


title: Ingrid Pitt

text: Ingoushka Petrov was born in Warsaw, Poland, one of two daughters of a father of German Jewish descent and a Polish Jewish mother. During World War II, she and her mother were imprisoned in Stutthof concentration camp in Sztutowo, Free City of Danzig (present-day Nowy Dwór Gdański County, Pomeranian Voivodeship, Poland) but escaped. In Berlin, in the 1950s, Ingoushka married an American soldier, Laud Roland Pitt Jr., and moved to California. After her marriage failed she returned to Europe, but after a small role in a film, she took the shortened stage name "Ingrid Pitt", keeping her former husband's surname, and headed to Hollywood, where she worked as a waitress while trying to make a career in films.


title: Ingrid Pitt

text: In the early 1960s, Pitt was a member of the prestigious Berliner Ensemble, under the guidance of Bertolt Brecht's widow Helene Weigel. In 1965, she made her film debut in "Doctor Zhivago", playing a minor role. In 1968, she co-starred in the low-budget science-fiction film "The Omegans", and in the same year, played British spy Heidi Schmidt in "Where Eagles Dare" opposite Richard Burton and Clint Eastwood.


title: Ingrid Pitt

text: Ingrid Pitt appeared as Queen Galleia of Atlantis in "The Time Monster", which was the fifth serial of the ninth season of "Doctor Who", broadcast in six weekly parts, from 20 May through 24 June 1972. She returned to "Doctor Who" as Dr. Solow in "Warriors of the Deep", which was the first serial of the 21st season of the series, broadcast in four twice-weekly parts from 5 to 13 January 1984. Pitt also appears in the second broadcast episode of the short-lived cult ITC series "The Zoo Gang", "Mindless Murder" (12 April 1974).


title: Ingrid Pitt

text: Her work with Hammer Film Productions elevated her to cult figure status. She starred as Carmilla/Mircalla in "The Vampire Lovers" (1970), based on Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu's novella "Carmilla", and played the title role in "Countess Dracula" (1971), based on the legends about Countess Elizabeth Báthory. Pitt also appeared in the Amicus horror anthology film "The House That Dripped Blood" (1971) and had a small part in "The Wicker Man" (1973).


title: Ingrid Pitt

text: During the 1980s, Pitt returned to mainstream films and television. Her role as Fraulein Baum in the 1981 BBC Playhouse "Unity", who is denounced as a Jew by Unity Mitford (Lesley-Anne Down), was uncomfortably close to her real-life experiences. Her popularity with horror film buffs had her in demand for guest appearances at horror conventions and film festivals. Other films in which Pitt has appeared outside the horror genre are: "Who Dares Wins" (1982) (or "The Final Option"), "Wild Geese II" (1985) and "Hanna's War" (1988). Generally cast as a villainess, her characters often died horribly at the end of the final reel. "Being the anti-hero is great – they are always roles you can get your teeth into."


title: Ingrid Pitt

text: At this time, the theatre world also beckoned. Pitt founded her own theatrical touring company and starred in successful stage productions of Alfred Hitchcock's 1954 classic, "Dial M for Murder", "Duty Free" (or "Don't Bother to Dress"), and "Woman of Straw". She also appeared in many television series in the United Kingdom and the United States; among them "Ironside", "Dundee and the Culhane" and "Smiley's People".


title: Ingrid Pitt

text: In 1998, Pitt narrated Cradle of Filth's "Cruelty and the Beast" album, although her narration was done strictly in-character as the Countess Elizabeth Báthory, as she portrayed in "Countess Dracula".


title: Ingrid Pitt

text: In 2000, Pitt made her return to the big screen in "The Asylum", starring Colin Baker and Patrick Mower and directed by John Stewart. In 2003, Pitt voiced the role of Lady Violator in Renga Media's production "Dominator". The film was the United Kingdom's first computer-generated imagery animated film.


title: Ingrid Pitt

text: After a period of illness, Pitt returned to the screen for the Hammer Films-Mario Bava tribute "Sea of Dust" (2008).


title: Ingrid Pitt

text: Pitt was also supposed play a cameo role in "Beyond the Rave" (2008) as the unnamed mother of the drug dealer character Tooley played by Steve Sweeney. This horror serial, which marked the return of Hammer Films was posted on the website MySpace had Pitt's cameo scene filmed for episode 3 but it was omitted in the final cut. Despite this, Pitt was mistakenly listed in the credits for the episode as "Tooley's mum" as if she was still in it. The scene is included as an extra on the DVD.


title: Ingrid Pitt

text: Ingrid Pitt's first book, after a number of ill-fated tracts on the plight of Native Americans, was the 1980 novel, "Cuckoo Run", a spy story about mistaken identity. "I took it to Cubby Broccoli. It was about a woman called Nina Dalton who is pursued across South America in the mistaken belief that she is a spy. Cubby said it was a female Bond. He was being very kind."


title: Ingrid Pitt

text: This was followed in 1984 by a novelisation of the Perón era in Argentina ("The Perons"), where she lived for a number of years: "Argentina was a wild frontier country ruled by a berserk military dictatorship at the time. It just suited my mood."


title: Ingrid Pitt

text: In 1984, Pitt and her husband Tony Rudlin were commissioned to script a "Doctor Who" adventure. The story, entitled "The Macro Men", was one of a number of ideas submitted by the couple after she appeared in the season 21 story arc "Warriors of the Deep" (1984). The plot concerned events surrounding the Philadelphia Experiment—the urban legend about a U.S. Navy experiment during World War II to try to make the destroyer escort invisible to radar. Pitt and Rudlin had read it in "The Philadelphia Experiment – Project Invisibility (1979)" by paranormal writer Charles Berlitz, grandson of the founder of the Berlitz language schools. It involved the Doctor (Colin Baker) and companion Peri (Nicola Bryant) arriving on board the ship in 1943 in the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard and becoming involved in a battle against microscopic humanoid creatures native to Earth, but previously unknown to humankind. The couple had several meetings with script editor Eric Saward and carried out numerous revisions, but the story progressed no further than the preparation of a draft first-episode script under the new title "The Macros". The story was released in June 2010 by Big Finish Productions as "The Macros" in their audios, five months before Pitt's death.


title: Ingrid Pitt

text: In 1999, her autobiography, "Life's a Scream" (Heinemann) was published, and she was short-listed for the Talkies Awards for her own reading of extracts from the audio book, "I Hate Being Second".


title: Ingrid Pitt

text: The autobiography detailed the harrowing experiences of her early life—in a Nazi concentration camp, her search through Europe in Red Cross refugee camps for her father, and her escape from East Berlin, one step ahead of the Volkspolizei. "I always had a big mouth and used to go on about the political schooling interrupting my quest for thespian glory. I used to think like that. Not good in a police state."


title: Ingrid Pitt

text: "The Ingrid Pitt Bedside Companion for Ghosthunters" (2003) was Pitt's tenth book. It was preceded by "The Ingrid Pitt Bedside Companion for Vampire Lovers" (1998) and "The Ingrid Pitt Book of Murder, Torture & Depravity" (2000).


title: Ingrid Pitt

text: Pitt's credentials for writing about ghosts spring from a time when she lived with a tribe of Indians in Colorado. Sitting with her baby daughter, Steffanie, by a log fire, she was sure that she could see the face of her father smiling at her in the flames. "I told one of the others and he went all Hollywood Injun on me and said something like 'Heap good medicine'. I guess he was taking the mickey."


title: Ingrid Pitt

text: Other writing projects include a different look at Hammer Films entitled "The Hammer Xperience". She also wrote a story under the pen name, Dracula Smith, which was illustrated within the fan club magazine.


title: Ingrid Pitt

text: Pitt wrote regular columns for various magazines and periodicals, including "Shivers", "TV & Film Memorabilia" and "Motoring and Leisure". She also wrote a regular column, often about politics, on her official website, as well as a weekly column at UK website Den of Geek. In 2008, she was added to the merchandising of "Monster-Mania: The Magazine".


title: Ingrid Pitt

text: In 2011, Avalard Publishing acquired the rights to "Cuckoo Run" (1980) and a number of other previously unpublished titles, including "Annul Domini: The Jesus Factor" (March 2012), a speculative novel about what would have happened if Jesus had never made it to Jerusalem.


title: Ingrid Pitt

text: Pitt's original novel "Dracula Who...?" was released in a limited edition by Avalard in October 2012 alongside the script for the unproduced film version. "Dracula Who...?" had the return of Countess Dracula, a role Ingrid had played on screen for Hammer Films.


title: Ingrid Pitt

text: Pitt married three times: Laud Roland Pitt Jr, an American GI; George Pinches, a British film executive; and Tony Rudlin, a writer and racing car driver. Her daughter from her first marriage, Steffanie Pitt-Blake, is also an actress and she has one granddaughter, Sofia Blake.


title: Ingrid Pitt

text: She had a passion for World War II aircraft. After revealing this on a radio programme, she was invited by the museum at RAF Duxford to have a flight in a Lancaster bomber. She held a student's pilot licence and a black belt in karate.


title: Ingrid Pitt

text: Pitt died in a south London hospital on 23 November 2010, a few days after collapsing, and two days after her 73rd birthday, from congestive heart failure.


title: Ingrid Pitt

text: Seven months before she died, Pitt finished narration for "Ingrid Pitt: Beyond the Forest" (2011), an animated short film on her experience in the Holocaust, a project that had been in the works for five years. Character design and storyboards were created by two-time Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Bill Plympton. The film is directed by Kevin Sean Michaels; co-produced and co-written by Jud Newborn, Holocaust expert and author, "Sophie Scholl and the White Rose"; and drawn by 10-year-old animator, Perry Chen. There will be a feature-length documentary, also by Michaels, to follow.


title: Ingrid Pitt

text: Ingrid Pitt has no known recorded discography, though she was tributed in a song by British metal band, Cradle Of Filth.


title: Punkie Johnson

text: Jessica Williams (born April 29, 1985), known professionally as Punkie Johnson, is an American comedian, actress, and writer based in New York City. Johnson was a stand-up comedian at The Comedy Store, before becoming a featured player on "Saturday Night Live" starting in its forty-sixth season. She was promoted to repertory status in 2022 before the beginning of the 48th season.


title: Punkie Johnson

text: Johnson, born Jessica Williams, was raised by her mother, Mary Johnson, in New Orleans, Louisiana, where she attended Catholic and public schools, graduating in May 2003 from McDonogh 35 High School. Johnson studied at Nicholls State University in Thibodaux, Louisiana, where she graduated in May 2008 with a Bachelor’s Degree in General Studies.


title: Punkie Johnson

text: Johnson began her career as a stand-up comedian. She later joined The Comedy Store in Los Angeles as a paid regular. In 2019, Johnson performed at Just for Laughs.


title: Punkie Johnson

text: As an actress, Johnson appeared in various television series such as "Space Force", "A Black Lady Sketch Show", "Corporate", and "Adam Ruins Everything".


title: Punkie Johnson

text: In 2020, Johnson was cast as a featured player on "Saturday Night Live", starting in its forty-sixth season. She was promoted to repertory status in 2022 before the beginning of the 48th season. Johnson is the eighth black female cast member in the show's history, the second black LGBT woman to be a cast member (following Danitra Vance, who was not publicly out during her lifetime), and the seventh LGBT cast member overall. She was promoted to repertory status at the beginning of the show's forty-eighth season.


title: Punkie Johnson

text: Johnson identifies as lesbian as well as identifying within the queer community. She and her wife had been partnered since 2002, but in a 2022 episode of the podcast "Films To Be Buried With" she revealed she was in the middle of divorce proceedings and had since begun a new relationship. According to an interview with NBC News, Johnson identifies strongly with lesbianism: “I’m just this little lesbian chick from New Orleans who is just enjoying life doing comedy and thinking. That’s it.”


title: Duster (band)

text: Duster is an American rock band consisting of multi-instrumentalists Clay Parton, Canaan Dove Amber, and Jason Albertini from San Jose, California.


title: Duster (band)

text: Formed in 1996 with only Parton and Amber who had previously worked together in bands Mohinder and Calm, they released 2 cassettes in the same year titled On the Dodge and Christmas Dust, respectively, as well as a 7" titled "Transmission, Flux" on Up Records released in 1997. Later the next year, Jason Albertini joined the band as a drummer and played on three tracks for their debut album, 1998's "Stratosphere", and with 1999's "1975" EP, Albertini became much more involved in the group's process, playing many more instruments and sharing recording/producing credits with Parton and Amber. By 2000's "Contemporary Movement", he was fully involved in the creative process as a permanent member of the group.


title: Duster (band)

text: On April 13, 2018, Duster posted via their Instagram page that they are "recording a little bit". Later it was announced that the band's discography would be reissued as the box set "Capsule Losing Contact" through The Numero Group, which was released on March 22, 2019. On July 4, 2019, the band released their first standalone single in almost 20 years, "Interstellar Tunnel", and subsequently announced their third self-titled studio album, which was released on December 13 that year.


title: Duster (band)

text: Of their hiatus and subsequent reunion, Parton said, "When we took a break almost two decades ago, we didn't think it was going to all completely stop. We thought we could keep it drifting at least, maybe at a slower pace and with a different process. But everything just went dark. We were always in touch and sometimes we'd talk about doing Duster things, but days just piled up... In recent years we've talked more seriously about at least doing another record. Now everything is sort of working out, and we are making new things together, but we're taking it slow and still doing most things wrong, so it does feel like right where we left off."


title: Duster (band)

text: On March 31, 2022, the band surprise-released their fourth studio album "Together" through several music videos on YouTube, with the album becoming available for sale the following day. Following the release, Clay Parton announced that Jason Albertini had left Duster to focus on his indie rock project Helvetia.


title: Duster (band)

text: The band released 2 albums under the pseudonym Valium Aggelein which were later re-released as a box set in 2020. Parton has also released music under the pseudonyms Eiafuawn (Everything is all fucked up and what not) and the Soviets and has played in bands El Buzzard, Breasts, Parton Kooper Planetarium, Two Boys Alright, Stumpy and Ghost Drugs. Albertini has his own band Helvetia that has put out multiple records on Parton's record label The Static Cult Label and has played for Mike Johnson, Built to Spill and Xiu Xiu. Amber has also released an EP under his name and Lonnie Win.


title: Duster (band)

text: Generally seen as indie rock, the group has been also associated with the space rock and slowcore movements by critics due to their unique sound. To produce this, the band typically recorded on cheap and older recording equipment, such as cassette decks, in their Low Earth Orbit studio, which is not an actual place but rather the general name where the band works, giving their music a lo-fi quality.


title: Ganglion cyst

text: A ganglion cyst is a fluid-filled bump associated with a joint or tendon sheath. It most often occurs at the back of the wrist, followed by the front of the wrist. Onset is often over several months, typically with no further symptoms. Occasionally, pain or numbness may occur. Complications may include carpal tunnel syndrome.


title: Ganglion cyst

text: The cause is unknown. The underlying mechanism is believed to involve an outpouching of the synovial membrane. Risk factors include gymnastics activity. Diagnosis is typically based on examination with light shining through the lesion being supportive. Medical imaging may be done to rule out other potential causes.


title: Ganglion cyst

text: Treatment options include watchful waiting, splinting the affected joint, needle aspiration, or surgery. About half the time, they resolve on their own. About three per 10,000 people newly develop ganglion of the wrist or hand a year. They most commonly occur in young and middle-aged females.


title: Ganglion cyst

text: The average size of these cysts is 2.0 cm, but excised cysts of more than 5 cm have been reported. The size of the cyst may vary over time and may increase after activity. Between 50 and 70% of all masses on the hand and wrist are expected to be ganglion cysts.


title: Ganglion cyst

text: Ganglion cysts most frequently occur around the dorsum of the wrist and on the fingers. A common site of the occurrence is along the extensor carpi radialis brevis, as it passes over the dorsum of the wrist joint. Although most commonly found in the wrist, ganglion cysts also may occur in the foot.


title: Ganglion cyst

text: Ganglion cysts are "commonly observed in association with the joints and tendons of the appendicular skeleton, with 88% 'in communication with the multiple small joints of the hand and wrist' and 11% with those of the foot and ankle".


title: Ganglion cyst

text: In a 2007 study of patients in Glasgow whose foot lumps were removed surgically, 39 of 101 cases were ganglion cysts. The study replicated earlier findings that no ganglion cysts were found on the sole or heel. The authors wrote, "Although lumps in these areas may be ganglia, the surgeon should probably consider other diagnoses in the first instance." The researchers noted a preponderance of occurrence among females (85%) and that 11 of the other cases had been misdiagnosed as ganglion cysts before surgery.


title: Ganglion cyst

text: Ganglion cysts are not limited to the hands and feet. They may occur near the knee, commonly near the cruciate ligaments, but they may occur at the origins of the gastrocnemius tendon, and anteriorly on Hoffa's infrapatellar fat pad. At the shoulder, they typically occur at the acromioclavicular joint or along the biceps tendon.


title: Ganglion cyst

text: From their common origin at a joint or tendon, ganglion cysts may form in a wide range of locations. Rarely, intraosseous ganglion cysts occur, sometimes in combination with a cyst in the overlying soft tissue. Rare cases of intramuscular ganglion cysts in the gastrocnemius muscle of the calf have been reported. It is possible for a cyst to be considerably displaced from the joint. In one extreme case, a ganglion cyst was observed to propagate extensively via the conduit of the common peroneal nerve sheath to a location in the thigh; in such cases surgery to the proximal joint to remove the articular connection may remove the need for a riskier, more extensive surgery in the neural tissue of the thigh. The cysts may intrude into the spine, which may cause pain and dysesthesia in distant extremities.


title: Ganglion cyst

text: Cystic adventitial disease, in which a cyst occurs within the popliteal artery near the knee, has been proposed recently to occur by an articular mechanism, with a conduit leading from the joint, similar to the development of ganglion cysts, that spreads within the peroneal nerve.


title: Ganglion cyst

text: Cysts that were compressing one or more nerves and causing bone erosions have been reported to occur near the shoulder joint.


title: Ganglion cyst

text: The most commonly accepted probable cause of ganglion cysts is the "herniation hypothesis," by which they are thought to occur as an out-pouching or distention of a weakened portion of a joint capsule or tendon sheath. This description is based on the observations that the cysts occur close to tendons and joints. The microscopic anatomy of the cyst resembles that of tenosynovial tissue. The fluid is similar in composition to synovial fluid. Dye injected into the joint capsule frequently ends up in the cyst, which may become enlarged after activity. Dye injected into the cyst rarely enters the joint, however, which has been attributed to the apparent formation of an effective and one-way "check valve", allowing fluid out of the joint, but not back in.


title: Ganglion cyst

text: In synovials, post-traumatic degeneration of connective tissue and inflammation have been considered as causes. Other possible mechanisms for the development of ganglion cysts include repeated mechanical stress, facet arthrosis, myxoid degeneration of periarticular fibrous tissues and liquefaction with chronic damage, increased production of hyaluronic acid by fibroblasts, and a proliferation of mesenchymal cells.


title: Ganglion cyst

text: Radiographs in anteroposterior and lateral views should be obtained to exclude any more serious underlying pathology. Ultrasonography (US) may be used to increase diagnostic confidence in clinically suspected lesions or to depict occult cysts, because intratendinous ganglia are readily distinguished from extratendinous ganglia during dynamic ultrasonography, as microscopically, ganglionic cysts are thin-walled cysts containing clear, mucinous fluid.


title: Ganglion cyst

text: If persons are not in pain, they should simply be reassured that the lump is not cancerous, and wait for the lump to disappear on its own. At least 33% resolve without treatment within six years, and 50% within 10 years.


title: Ganglion cyst

text: Surgical treatments remain the primary elective option for treatment of ganglion cysts. The progression of ganglion surgery worldwide is to use an arthroscopic or miniopening method. Alternatively, a hypodermic needle may be used to drain the fluid from the cyst (via aspiration) and a corticosteroid may be injected after the cyst is empty; however, if the fluid has thickened, owing to the passage of time, this treatment is not always effective. The recurrence rate is about 50% following needle drainage (via aspiration) of ganglion cysts.


title: Ganglion cyst

text: A historical method of treatment for a ganglion cyst was to strike the lump with a large and heavy book, causing the cyst to rupture and drain into the surrounding tissues. Historically, a Bible was the largest or only book in any given household, and was employed for this treatment. This led to the nickname of "Bible bumps" or "Gideon's disease" for these cysts. This treatment risks injuring the person and thus is not recommended.


title: Ganglion cyst

text: Complications of treatment may include joint stiffness and scar formation. Recurrence of the lesion is more common following excision of a volar ganglion cyst in the wrist. Incomplete excision that fails to include the stalk or pedicle also may lead to recurrence, as will failing to execute a layered closure of the incision.


title: Ganglion cyst

text: Recurrence rate is higher in aspirated cysts than in excised ones. Ganglion cysts have been found to recur following surgery in 12% to 41% of patients.


title: Ganglion cyst

text: A six-year outcome study of the treatment of ganglion cysts on the dorsal wrist compared excision, aspiration, and no treatment. Neither excision nor aspiration provided long-term benefit better than no treatment. Of the untreated ganglion cysts, 58% resolved spontaneously; the postsurgery recurrence rate in this study was 39%. A similar study in 2003 of ganglion cysts occurring on the palmar surface of the wrist states: "At 2- and 5-year follow-up, regardless of treatment, no difference in symptoms was found, regardless of whether the palmar wrist ganglion was excised, aspirated, or left alone."


title: Ganglion cyst

text: Being a misnomer that has persisted into modern times, the ganglion cyst is unrelated to the neural "ganglion" or "ganglion cell"; its etymology traces back to the ancient Greek γάγγλιον, a "knot" or "swelling beneath the skin", which extends to the neural masses by analogy. Generally, Hippocrates is credited with the description of these cysts.


title: Ganglion cyst

text: The term "Bible cyst" (or "Bible bump") is derived from an urban legend or historical effort to hit the cyst with a Bible. Trying to treat the lesion by hitting it with a book, though, is discouraged.


title: The Oberoi Group

text: The Oberoi Group is an award-winning luxury hotel group with its head office in New Delhi, India. Founded in 1934, the company owns and operates 32 luxury hotels and two river cruise ships in 7 countries, primarily under its Oberoi Hotels & Resorts and Trident brands. The group also operates The Oberoi Centre for Learning and Development, which is regarded as one of Asia's top institutions for hospitality education.


title: The Oberoi Group

text: The foundations of the Oberoi Group date back to 1934 when The Rai Bahadur Mohan Singh Oberoi, the founder of the group, bought two properties: the Maidens in Delhi and the Clarke's in Shimla. In the following years Oberoi, assisted by his two sons, Tilak Raj Singh Oberoi and Prithvi Raj Singh Oberoi (P.R.S. Oberoi), continued the expansion of their group with properties both in India and abroad.


title: The Oberoi Group

text: On 26 November 2008, Trident Mumbai was attacked by 2 terrorists, Fahadullah and Abdul Rehman of Lashkar-e-Taiba organization as a part of the 2008 Mumbai attacks. 32 staff and guests were killed during the three-day siege.


title: The Oberoi Group

text: The two major holding companies of The Oberoi Group are EIH Ltd and EIH Associated Hotels (formerly East India Hotels). P.R.S. Oberoi is the current chairman of The Oberoi Group. His son, Vikramjit Singh Oberoi, and his nephew, Arjun Singh Oberoi serve in the capacities of the Joint Managing Directors at the holding companies.


title: The Oberoi Group

text: The Oberoi family is the majority shareholder in EIH Ltd with a 32.11% stake. Cigarettes to Hotels conglomerate, [ITC Limited] owns approximately a 14.98% stake in EIH Ltd.To ward off pressures from ITC Ltd. whose ownership stands precariously close to the automatic open offer trigger at 15%, the Oberoi family divested a 14.12% stake in EIH Ltd. to Mukesh Ambani led Reliance Industries Investment and Holding Pvt Ltd. The stake sale happened on 30 August 2010 for Rs. 1,021 crores valuing EIH Ltd. at an enterprise value of Rs. 7,200 crores. Recently the stake of Reliance further raised from ITC and it stood at 20% overall for Reliance industries.


title: The Oberoi Group

text: The company currently manages 32 hotels under the luxury brand "Oberoi Hotels & Resorts", with a further 10 five-star properties under the "Trident Hotels" brand. The group also operates the Clarkes Hotel in Shimla and the Maidens Hotel, Delhi. However, these two properties are not held under the Trident or under the Oberoi brand. The Clarkes Hotel, after remaining temporarily shut following its lawns caving in because of construction in the eco-sensitive vicinity, reopened on 16 September 2012.


title: The Oberoi Group

text: The Oberoi Hotels and Resorts group has been voted the world's best hotel brand by readers of the Travel + Leisure travel magazine. Many of the brand hotels have also received a number of awards. Hotels of the Oberoi group have also been ranked amongst the 10 best in the world in Condé Nast Traveler's Readers' Choice Awards. The Oberoi Vanyavilas Ranthambore has been rated the world's best hotel for 2010 by readers of Travel + Leisure.


title: Char 2C

text: The Char 2C, also known as the FCM 2C, was a French heavy tank, later also seen as a super-heavy tank. It was developed during World War I but not deployed until after the war. It was, in total volume or physical dimensions, the largest operational tank ever made.


title: Char 2C

text: The origins of the Char 2C have always been shrouded in a certain mystery. In the summer of 1916, likely in July, General Léon Augustin Jean Marie Mourret, the Subsecretary of Artillery, verbally granted "Forges et Chantiers de la Méditerranée" (FCM), a shipyard in the south of France near Toulon, the contract for the development of a heavy tank, a "char d'assaut de grand modèle". At the time, French industry was very active in lobbying for defence orders, using their connections with high-placed officials and officers to obtain commissions; development contracts could be very profitable even when not resulting in actual production, as they were fully paid for by the state. The French Army had no stated requirement for a heavy tank, and there was no official policy to procure one. Hence, the decision seemed to have been taken solely on his personal authority. The reason he later gave was that the British tanks then in development by a naval committee seemed to be better devised as regarded lay-out, ventilation and fire protection, so a shipyard might improve on existing French designs.


title: Char 2C

text: Exact specifications, if they ever existed, have been lost. FCM then largely neglected the project, apart from reaping the financial benefits. At that time, all tank projects were highly secret, and thereby shielded from public scrutiny.


title: Char 2C

text: On 15 September 1916, the British introduced the Mark I tank in the Battle of the Somme, and a veritable tank euphoria followed. When the public mood in Britain had been growing ever darker as the truth of the failure of the Somme Offensive could no longer be suppressed, tanks offered a new hope of final victory. The French people now became curious about the state of their own national tank projects. French politicians, not having been greatly involved in them and leaving the matter to the military, were no less inquisitive. This sudden attention greatly alarmed Mourret, who promptly investigated the progress that had been made at FCM and was shocked to find there was none. On 30 September, he personally took control of the project. On 12 October, knowing that the Renault company had some months earlier made several proposals to build a heavy tracked mortar which had been rejected, he begged Louis Renault to assist FCM in the development of a suitable heavy vehicle; this request Renault obliged. Even before knowing what the exact nature of the project would be, on 20 October Mourret ordered one prototype to be built by FCM.


title: Char 2C

text: This development coincided with a political demand by Minister of Armaments Albert Thomas to produce a tank superior to the British types. On 7 October, he had requested Lloyd George to deliver some Mark I's to France but had received no answer. Correctly concluding that no such deliveries would materialise, on 23 January 1917 he ordered that French tanks should be developed that were faster, and more powerfully armed and armoured than any British vehicle. He specified a weight of forty tonnes, an immunity against light artillery rounds and a trench-crossing capacity of 3.5 metres.


title: Char 2C

text: Meanwhile, Renault had consulted his own team, led by , which since May 1916 had been in the process of designing the revolutionary Renault FT light tank. This work had not, however, stopped them from considering other tank types. Renault, always expecting his employees to provide new ideas instantly, had by this attitude encouraged the team to take a proactive stance – setting a pattern that would last until 1940 – and to have various kinds of contingency studies ready for the occasion, including a feasibility study for a heavy tank. This fortunate circumstance allowed a full-size wooden mockup to be constructed in a remarkably quick time. It was visited by the Subsecretary of State of Inventions Jules-Louis Breton on 13 January 1917, who was much impressed and developed a keen interest in the project. The design was presented to the Consultative Committee of the Assault Artillery on 16 and 17 January 1917, after the basic concept had been approved on 30 December. This proposed tank was the most advanced design of its time; it was received very favourably, also because of the enthusiastic report by Breton, and a consensus began to form that the project was most promising and a potential "war-winner". It featured a 105 mm gun in a turret and had a proposed weight of 38 tons, as well as 35 mm armour. The committee decided to have two prototypes developed, one with an electrical transmission, the other with a hydraulic transmission. In this period, both the French and British military had become aware of severe mobility and steering problems with heavy tracked vehicles; the French designs paralleled extensive British experiments with all kinds of improved tank transmissions to solve them.


title: Char 2C

text: In January 1917, the Ministry of Armament proposed building three weight classes of tanks: light, medium and heavy tanks, the latter class corresponding to the new project. However, the FCM tank had already made a powerful and influential enemy. Brigadier Jean Baptiste Eugène Estienne, commander of the new tank force, the Assault Artillery, closely cooperated with Renault in the development of the Renault FT, and through this connection was kept well informed of the other tank project. Estienne began to fear that the production of the heavy vehicle would use up all available production facilities, making the procurement of the much more practical Renault FT light tank impossible. He was not averse to the production of heavy tanks as such but only in a limited number and on the condition it did not impede the manufacture of light tanks. That his fears were not unfounded became apparent when in November Mourret tried to obstruct further development of the Renault FT, arguing that all available resources should be concentrated into heavy tank production. Alarmed, Estienne now wrote a letter to the Commander-in-Chief, General Joffre, dated 27 November 1916 and defending the light tank concept. In it he admitted that "colossal landships" might in certain circumstances have their uses, but pointed out that while it was as yet unproven that any workable heavy type could actually be developed, let alone produced in sufficient numbers by French industry, it would be folly not to give priority to light tanks that could be constructed without delay. He insisted that Joffre use all his influence to bring about the cancellation of the heavy tank project.


title: Char 2C

text: Joffre answered that Estienne was no doubt correct in his tactical and organisational analysis, but that he could not oblige him because political backing of the heavy tank was simply too strong. The Minister of Armament, Albert Thomas, had committed himself too openly to Mourret's cause and did not dare to retract support now. Joffre advised Estienne not to worry too much; he would make sure at least that the Renault FT would not be cancelled, and precisely because heavy tank development would take such a long time, for the immediate future it would not get in the way of light tank production. There would surely be no harm in allowing some prototypes to be built.


title: Char 2C

text: The Consultative Committee of the Assault Artillery ("Comité Consultatif de l'Artillerie d'Assaut" or CCAS) had been created on 13 December 1916 and for the first time met on 17 December. During this first session it was reported that Renault and FCM were cooperating on a heavy tank project of thirty tonnes. Estienne on this occasion stressed that production should be "orientated towards small types and very large types". During the next meeting on 30 December, Estienne was surprised to discover that for no clear reasons a 105 mm gun was planned. He himself preferred a 75 mm gun. Estienne was absent on the crucial meeting of 17 January, but by letter informed the committee that he found the project well-presented and satisfactory and agreed with the quick construction of two prototypes; he stated his preference for a 75 mm over a 105 mm gun.


title: Char 2C

text: In December Joffre was replaced as supreme commander by Robert Nivelle. In late January Nivelle learned of the heavy tank project from Estienne. He was much more alarmed than Joffre had been. On 29 January he wrote a letter to Minister Thomas, making clear that under no circumstances could the project be allowed to impede production of the Schneider CA. Thomas answered on 5 February that there was no danger of this; anyway he had just happened to affirm on 1 February the policy of General Mourret, who had already ordered the simultaneous development of three prototypes: the lightened "A" version, weighing thirty tons, having a length of 6.92 metres, with a suspension featuring twenty-nine double road wheels, four main bogies and five top rollers, powered by two Renault engines and to be equipped with a 75 mm gun, to fulfil the original order of 20 October; the "B" version of forty-five tons with a hull lengthened to 7.39 metres, armed with a 75 mm gun and two machine guns, with a suspension featuring thirty road wheels, five main bogies and six top rollers, using a new engine and a petro-hydraulic transmission and the "C" version of 62 tons with a 75 mm gun, a length of 9.31 meters, a suspension featuring forty-five road wheels, six main bogies and nine top rollers, and four engines of combined with a petro-electrical transmission. Nivelle's misgivings were reinforced by inquiries from a parliamentary financial commission led by Pierre Renaudel. A plan by Breton to immediately order fifty vehicles more or less identical to the mock-up was therefore rejected. The 1 February order of two additional prototypes was confirmed by the CCAS on 7 February. Eventually the "FCM 1A" would be developed with a 105 mm gun and the "FCM 1B" would use a petrol-mechanical transmission.


title: Char 2C

text: At first, progress with the FCM 1A prototype was satisfactory. FCM director Moritz was assured by Renault in January 1917 that the desired engines were reliable and would pose no danger to the project. Moritz then predicted that the first prototype would be ready by 1 May 1917. On 10 April 1917 he still assumed that the first trials could have begun within five weeks. On 16 April the Nivelle Offensive failed completely, and the first use of French tanks was likewise a failure; in reaction Thomas ordered all tank production and projects to be ended. This led to an emergency alliance between Estienne and Mourret to bring about a reversal of this decision. When Thomas happened to visit Russia, Mourret surreptitiously ordered a restart of the tank projects. On his return an enraged Thomas caused Mourret to be fired, thus removing Estienne's greatest rival. Meanwhile, there were unexplained delays in the delivery of the engines and the gearbox by Renault. On 5 June, FCM could only take note that the promised pieces had not arrived yet. On 24 June the ministry of armament complained about the situation. On 13 August Breton personally inquired with Renault and was informed it would take at least another three weeks. A possible explanation of the delays might be a deliberate decision by Renault to give priority to other projects. During a meeting of the CCAS on 18 October, Moritz could at last announce that trials could begin on 20 November. In that meeting Estienne was critical of heavy tanks: "the infantry has as much need of large tanks, as it needs 400 mm cannon; it has need of small tanks, as much as it needs 37 mm and machine-guns".


title: Char 2C

text: On 17 November, director Moritz, introducing to the CCAS the forthcoming presentation of the FCM 1A prototype, explained it was a test bed that did not exactly correspond to the original "A version" specifications. In fact the company, in its efforts to get an actual running vehicle ready as soon as possible, had built a prototype that was largely based on the original mock-up and thus was much closer to the "B"-concept, albeit with a 105 mm gun and a petrol-mechanical transmission; the hydraulic transmission had been abandoned by the CCAS on 10 May. A detailed army report on the plans of January 1917 survives that can give a good impression of the qualities of the eventual prototype.


title: Char 2C

text: The vehicle was the largest tank built until that date. It had a length of , a width of , a hull height of , a turret roof height of and a total height, cupola included, of . It was also the first tank vehicle that offered a real protection against artillery HE rounds: the front hull was covered by 35 mm (1.38 in) armour plate; the same was the all-around thickness of the turret. The sides and rear were protected by 21 mm (0.83 in) plate, the top and roof by 15 mm (0.6 in). The total weight of the tank was 41.4 tonnes. Its empty hulk weight was 22.1 tonnes, 17.5 tonnes accounted for by the hull, of which 5.5 tonnes of armour, and 4.6 tonnes by the turret, including 1.3 tonnes of armour.


title: Char 2C

text: The hull of the FCM 1A was very elongated, in order to cross wide trenches. It was more-or-less compartmentalised into four sections, but these were not separated by bulkheads: a relatively short driver compartment at the front, a fighting compartment with a turret at its top, a larger munitions room and finally a large engine compartment at the rear. The last was enlarged at both sides over the tracks, to create room for long rectangular fuel tanks. The front of the hull followed the profile of the tall climbing faces of the tracks and therefore gradually curved upwards, ending in a high vertical nose plate. The glacis plate behind it was oriented almost horizontally and connected at its rear to the vertical top front plate of the driver compartment. As the turret ring was larger than the width of the hull, it partly rested on rounded lateral extensions. The turret was a truncated cone with a roof sloping down to the front, so that in side view its profile was wedge-shaped.


title: Char 2C

text: Originally a crew of seven had been planned, but in December 1917 this had been reduced to six: a commander in the left of the turret who also had the responsibility for aiming the gun; a second man in the right of the turret who combined the functions of gunner, machine-gunner and loader; a standing assistant-loader handing new rounds to the loader – at first two of these had been seen as necessary; a driver; a front machine-gunner; and a mechanic who doubled as a rear machine-gunner.


title: Char 2C

text: The main armament was a 105 mm gun, a "Canon de 105 Court Schneider", shortened to reduce its recoil to fit into a turret. It fired a HE shell with of explosives and a muzzle velocity of . The large hull allowed for a large ammunition stock of 122 rounds: eighteen, stacked in three vertical rows of six in front of him, were directly accessible to the gunner/loader; two batches of eight were stowed below the fighting compartment floor and forty-four, stacked in four vertical rows of eleven, lined each wall of the ammunition room. The commander pointed the gun by observing the target through a vane sight, fitted on the turret roof, from his rectangular "cupola". There were two Hotchkiss 8 mm machine-guns in fixed ball-mount positions; reserve machine-guns or pistols could be fired through five vertical slits that could be plugged: one at the rear of the turret, two at the turret sides and two at the hull sides below the turret rear.


title: Char 2C

text: In the prototype, a single Renault twelve cylinder engine was installed, allowing a maximum speed of at 1200 rpm. The minimum speed was . The transmission was mechanical, using a disc clutch. The sprocket was at the rear, the idler at the front. The suspension consisted of bogies, sprung by leaf springs, of four wheels each with alternating external and internal flanges. The tracks were wide, resulting in a ground pressure of . Ground clearance was . The centre of gravity was in the middle of the vehicle, at a level of one metre above the ground. The design deliberately featured no overhanging front or rear sections, which had greatly hampered the mobility of the earlier French Schneider CA1 and Saint Chamond tanks. The tank could overcome a vertical obstacle and cross a trench wide.


title: Char 2C

text: Mourret's stated motive in having the tank designed by a shipyard ensured much attention was given to ergonomics. The vehicle was thus less cramped than earlier designs; the crew could walk, slightly crouching, throughout the hull. The mechanic could access the engine from both sides, and the commander could communicate with the driver, the front machine-gunner and the mechanic via speaking tubes. External communications were the responsibility of the mechanic, who could open a small hatch just behind the turret to signal using flags, flares or electrical lights. The tank could be entered through the cupola, but each crew-member also had oval or round escape hatches above or below him.


title: Char 2C

text: On 20 December 1917 the first prototype was ready to be shown to an investigating commission of the CCAS, with actual trials being held at La Seyne-sur-Mer on 21 and 22 December. Mourret had been replaced as head of the commission by Estienne; British and American observers were present. The FCM 1A, with its futuristic appearance, made an excellent impression on those present. Moritz demonstrated that the vehicle was effortlessly capable of crossing 3.5 metres wide trenches, climb ninety centimetres high walls and descend into, and climb out of again, six metres wide and four metres deep craters. In woods, it could break a 28 centimetres thick pine tree and run over a 35 centimetres thick one. A speed of 6 km/h was attained. The main problem was that it proved difficult to steer the tank due to its extreme track length and insufficient chain link profile. The track would easily slip when braked, though it was on no occasion thrown. The aircraft engine tended to overheat and its basic lack of power resulted in a maximum 65% climbing slope. Though the first shortened 105 mm Schneider cannon had been received in October, the first live firing tests were only held on 5 and 7 February 1918, with satisfactory results.


title: Char 2C

text: Discussing the results of the trials, on 4 January 1918 the technical department of the "Artillerie Spéciale" concluded that the FCM 1A seemed a powerful combat vehicle capable of having an important negative effect on enemy morale. Already on 30 December, minister of munitions Louis Loucheur had thought that France "hadn't a minute to lose" and suggested to Georges Clemenceau to spend fifty million French francs to construct a hundred FCM 1As, the first fifteen to be delivered from July 1918 onwards, in order to have a strength of eighty vehicles on 31 December. However, Clemenceau would leave the decision to Estienne.