Map

Alberta's oilsands, also known as tarsands, cover over 140,200 square kilometres of the province — an area larger than England and Wales combined.

About 82 per cent of Alberta's recoverable bitumen — the heavy, tar-like oil mixed in with sand — is too deep to be surface-mined. The deep oilsands must be extracted using the in-situ (in place) method with wells dug much like conventional oil drilling.

This map outlines the province's bitumen deposits. (Map: Alberta Geological Survey/ERCB)