Alberta oil sands map
Explore named oil-sands projects, rivers, roads and communities across Athabasca, Cold Lake and Peace River. Compare mining and in situ recovery and open related 3D equipment lessons.
Enable JavaScript to explore the labelled map, select project pins and view historical elevation in 3D. The regional field notes and source links are available below.
Athabasca
The Athabasca River, Fort McMurray and the northern mine corridor.
Follow the river north from Fort McMurray to compare surface mines, extraction plants and upgraders. Then visit Firebag to see why the same oil sands region also uses underground recovery.
Suncor Base Plant
Mining, extraction & upgrading. Suncor's Base Plant connects oil sands mining and bitumen extraction with upgrading facilities north of Fort McMurray.
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Syncrude Mildred Lake
Mining, extraction & upgrading. Syncrude's Mildred Lake complex combines open-pit mining, extraction and upgrading to produce synthetic crude oil.
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Syncrude Aurora North
Surface mining & extraction. Aurora is a northern part of the Syncrude mining system. Its location illustrates how separate mine and processing areas form a regional operation.
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Horizon Oil Sands
Mining, extraction & upgrading. Horizon combines a surface mine, bitumen extraction plant and on-site upgrading to produce synthetic crude oil.
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Kearl
Surface mining & extraction. Kearl is an Imperial-operated oil sands mine in the Athabasca region. Its operation includes an autonomous haul-truck fleet.
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Fort Hills
Mining & paraffinic froth treatment. Fort Hills is a truck-and-shovel mine. Paraffinic froth treatment produces marketable bitumen without an on-site upgrader.
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Firebag
Steam-assisted gravity drainage. Firebag is an in situ SAGD project. Steam, wells and surface processing recover bitumen that is not extracted by an open-pit mine.
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Fort McMurray
Regional orientation. Use Fort McMurray as the southern reference point for exploring the Athabasca River and the northern mining corridor.
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Fort McKay
Regional orientation. Fort McKay is a community reference point between the southern processing complexes and the northern mine corridor.
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Cold Lake
Eastern Alberta's thermal projects and neighbouring communities.
Deeper bitumen is recovered through wells rather than open pits. Explore Foster Creek's SAGD example and the Cold Lake–Bonnyville community setting, then open the well-pair and steam equipment lessons.
Foster Creek
Steam-assisted gravity drainage. Foster Creek is a Cenovus oil sands project using SAGD. Paired horizontal wells connect steam injection with bitumen production.
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Cold Lake
Regional orientation. Cold Lake is a city and regional reference point. The community, the lake and the oil sands area are distinct features.
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Bonnyville
Regional orientation. Bonnyville is a town southwest of Cold Lake. It provides a second community anchor for exploring eastern Alberta's thermal oil sands setting.
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Peace River
Northwestern Alberta's river valley and an in situ project example.
The town, the river and the oil sands area are different features. Use the community anchors for orientation and compare the Peace River thermal project's cyclic-steam approach with the paired wells of SAGD.
Peace River Complex
Cyclic steam stimulation. The Peace River Complex is an in situ bitumen project. AER lists its Peace River scheme as cyclic steam stimulation, a different approach from SAGD.
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Peace River
Regional orientation. The town of Peace River sits in northwestern Alberta's river-valley landscape. It is a community anchor, not the boundary of the oil sands deposit.
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Nampa
Regional orientation. Nampa is a village south of Peace River. Use it as a geographic reference while comparing the regional road network and nearby project location.
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Project pins are approximate geographic references, not lease boundaries, public access or current operating status. Historical elevation is exaggerated 2× in 3D.
Explore the 3D equipment atlas · Official Alberta energy maps
Basemap: OpenFreeMap, OpenStreetMap contributors. Elevation: Mapzen / AWS Terrain Tiles, NRCan CDEM. Contains information licensed under the Open Government Licence – Canada.