Canadian Tar Sands

• Biggest deposits of Tar sands in the world are in Venezuela and Canada
• 1967: start of exploitation of Canadian deposits on a commercial scale with a focus on Alberta province, notably in Athabasca area
• Currently: Tar sands produce about 40% of Canada's oil output
• 2015 fall in global price of oil = detrimental impact on tar sands industry as extracting bitumen is relatively expensive (mostly due to high energy input)
• Also has environmental and human costs e.g scale of strip mining requires the clearance of large areas of taiga