Road to riches: New proposals for Canadian oil sands
Shaun Polczer drives into Canada's oily heartland. Men, money and machines travel north. Oil flows south
Don't run out of petrol in the world's third-largest oilfield. Heading from Edmonton, Alberta's capital, into Canada's oil sands, motorists are warned to check their fuel gauges because there are no filling stations for 300 km. It is no small irony considering the region holds about 1 trillion barrels of bitumen. Highway 63, Canada's "Golden Road", is paved with oil. Depending on prices, as much as 5% of the country's GDP travels alongside 500 km of blacktop to refineries and export transit points to Edmonton. Next to the roadway, pipelines pump almost about 2.2 million barrels a day (b/d) of oil-sands crude south along a steady procession of batteries, storage terminals and pumping stations
Also in this section
25 July 2025
KRG, Iraq’s central government and Turkey are all working to get exports flowing from the key port, but complications remain
25 July 2025
Mozambique’s insurgency continues, but the security situation near the LNG site has significantly improved, with TotalEnergies aiming to lift its force majeure within months
25 July 2025
There is a bifurcation in the global oil market as China’s stockpiling contrasts with reduced inventories elsewhere
24 July 2025
The reaction to proposed sanctions on Russian oil buyers has been muted, suggesting trader fatigue with Trump’s frequent bold and erratic threats
