About one-quarter of Alberta’s mineable established oil sands reserves are under active development, with a number of projects in varying stages of expansion, construction, regulatory application or planning and design. Mining opportunities have become much more difficult to find and develop due to the industry’s historical focus on near-surface deposits, the large concentrated reserve base, ultimate project scale and the high capital cost of developing mining projects.
Less than 2 percent of the in situ established reserves are currently under active development, with over 82 percent of cumulative in situ production from the Cold Lake area. This leaves a tremendous untapped potential for future in situ projects in the Athabasca and Peace River regions.