By 1973 the importance of the Alberta oil sands was already realized as an enormous back up supply but was considered to be the second line of defence in comparison to the oil shales of western Colorado and parts of Utah and Wyoming. The Peace River oil deposits production followed technological advances. In 1977 Strausz published his article on the chemistry of the oil sands, then also known as the
tar sands attending the conference that year entitled the
Symposium on Tar Sand and Oil Shale. By 2003 with the
rising price of oil, and the improvement of enhanced recovery techniques such as thermal
in-situ methods, the Peace River oil sands had become much more viable.
Capital expenditure increased between 2006 and 2015 totalling $125 billion in all oil sands projects leading to a severe
labor shortage in Alberta and driven
unemployment rates to their lowest level in history – the lowest of all 10 Canadian provinces and 50 U.S. states. == Oil production ==