Oil sands, defined simply are a mixture of water, sand, clay, and natural bitumen. Natural bitumen is a heavily viscous oil, which must undergo specialized procedures in order to be extracted. While oil sands occur in many places in the world, the largest such occurrence is located in the forests of Northern Alberta. This area is referred to as the Alberta Oil Sands, or the Athabasca Oil Sands. Oil sands were not always included when estimating the world’s recoverable oil reserves. It is only in relatively recent years that technology has improved enough to efficiently extract and refine the bitumen into a synthetic crude oil. The Athabasca region was first inhabited by a variety of First Nation’s and Cree tribes. While the indigenous
