Fort McMurray, Alberta, August 2010

"It is estimated that there is enough bitumen in Alberta to yield 1.7 trillion barrels of synthetic crude. Assuming that only ten percent of this is actually recoverable, it still represents the second-largest oil reserve in the world, after Saudi Arabia's, and more oil than is contained in the reserves of Kuwait, Norway, and Russia put together."

"In Fort McMurray, what might be called the world's first unconventional oil boom is already under way. Since 2002, Shell, ConocoPhillips, Chevron, and Imperial Oil, which is primarily owned by ExxonMobil, have all received approval to construct major projects in the tar sands; Total has announced its intentions to follow suit. Over the next five years, investment in the Fort McMurray area is expected to amount to more than seventy-five billion dollars. Residents of the town have taken to calling it Fort McMoney."

Elizabeth Kolbert (2007). "Unconventional Crude." The New Yorker, November 12, 46-51, quotes from p. 46, 47.