Composition for steam extraction of bitumen

A method to recover bitumen comprising the step of contacting oil sands with a composition consisting essentially of an alkanolamine and a glycol ether wherein the alkanolamine/glycol ether composition comprises:

• (i) an alkanolamine described by the following structure:
• R1R2N—R3OH
• where R1 is H, or a linear, branched, or cyclic alkyl group of 1 to 4 carbons, R2 is H, —CH2CH2OH, or a linear, branched, or cyclic alkyl group of 1 to 4 carbons,
• and
• R3 is a linear or branched alkyl group of 2 to 5 carbons
• and
• (ii) one or more glycol ether selected from:
• (a) an ethylene oxide capped glycol ether described by the following structure:
• RO—(CH2CH(CH3)O)m(C2H4O)nH
• wherein R is a linear, branched, cyclic alkyl, phenyl, or alkyl phenyl group of equal to or greater than 4 carbons,
• m is 0 to 3,
• and
• n is 1 to 3,
• and
• (b) a propylene oxide capped glycol ether described by the following structure:
• RO—(C2H4O)o(CH2CH(CH3)O)pH
• wherein R is a linear, branched, cyclic alkyl, phenyl, or alkyl phenyl group of equal to or greater than 4 carbons,
• o is 0 to 3,
• and
• p is 1 to 3,
• wherein the treatment is to oil sands recovered by surface mining or in situ production and the ratio of alkanolamine (i) to ethylene oxide capped glycol ether and/or propylene oxide capped glycol ether (ii) is from 25:75 to 75:25.