Alberta's oil sands represent a vast and untapped oil reserve that could reasonably supply all of Canada's energy needs for the next 475 years. With an estimated 300 billion barrels of recoverable oil at stake, the quest to develop this natural resource has been undertaken by many powerful actors, both nationally and internationally.

Using research that integrates the economic, political, scientific, and business factors that have been influential in discovering and developing the sands, this book provides a comprehensive history of the oil sands project and a window on the nature of the complex relationships between industry, government, and transnational players. This book is the first comprehensive volume to examine the origins and development of the oil sands industry over the last century.

Paul Chastko earned his PhD in history from Ohio University and is currently working as an energy consultant in Calgary, Alberta.

Paul Chastko's profile page

• Winner, Petroleum History Society of Canada Book of the Year

Developing Alberta's Oil Sands is a well-researched, well-written, tightly argued book . . . As oil sands development intensifies, the story will continue. For now, though, this is the definitive study.

—Bonar A. Gow, The Canadian Historical Review

A valuable and easily accessible narrative of the sands' development . . . It deserves a place on the bookshelf of academics and the curious public interested in economic development, Canadian politics, and the petroleum industry.

—Erik Lizée, Historie social/Social History