Cree native named Wa Pa Su brought a sample to Hudsons Bay Company fur trader Henry Kelsey, who commented on it in his journals. Fur trader Peter Pond paddled down the Clearwater River to Athabasca in 1. In 1. 78. 7, fur trader and explorer Alexander Mac. Kenzie on his way to the Arctic Ocean saw the Athabasca oil sands, and commented, At about 2. Athabasca and Clearwater Rivers are some bituminous fountains into which a pole of 2. PioneerseditThe commercial possibilities of Canadas vast oil sands were realized early by Canadian government researchers. In 1. 88. 4, Robert Bell of the Geological Survey of Canada commented, The banks of the Athabasca would furnish an inexhaustible supply of fuel. In 1. 91. 5, Sidney Ells of the Federal Mines Branch experimented with separation techniques and used the material to pave 6. Edmonton, as well as in other places. In 1. 92. 0, chemist Karl Clark of the Alberta Research Council began experimenting with methods to extract bitumen from the oil sands and, in 1. Commercial development began in 1. Robert Fitzsimmons began drilling oil wells at Bitumount, north of Fort Mc. Murray, but obtained disappointing results with conventional drilling. In 1. 92. 7 he formed the International Bitumen Company and in 1. Clarks design. He produced about 3. Edmonton. The bitumen from the mine had numerous uses, but most of it was used to waterproof roofs. Costs were too high and Fitzsimmons went bankrupt. In 1. 94. 1 the company was renamed Oil Sands Limited and attempted to iron out technical problems, but was never very successful. It went through several changes of ownership, and in 1. In 1. 97. 4 Bitumount became an Alberta Provincial Historic Site. In 1. 93. 0 businessman Max Ball formed Canadian Oil Sand Product, Ltd, which later became Abasand Oils. He built a separation plant capable of handling 2. The plant burned down in late 1. In 1. 94. 3 the Canadian government took control of the Abasand plant under the War Measures Act and planned to expand it further. However, in 1. 94. Canadian government abandoned the project because the need for fuel had diminished with the end of the war. The Abasand site is also an Alberta Historic Site. GeologyeditThe worlds largest oil sands are in Venezuela and Canada. The geology of the deposits in the two countries is generally rather similar. They are vast heavy oil, extra heavy oil, andor bitumen deposits with oil heavier than 2. API, found largely in unconsolidatedsandstones with similar properties. Unconsolidated in this context means that the sands have high porosity, no significant cohesion, and a tensile strength close to zero. The sands are saturated with oil which has prevented them from consolidating into hard sandstone. Size of resourceseditThe magnitude of the resources in the two countries is on the order of 3. OOIP. Oil in place is not necessarily oil reserves, and the amount that can be produced depends on technological evolution. Rapid technological developments in Canada in the 1. SAGD that can recover a much greater percentage of the OOIP than conventional methods. The Alberta government estimates that with current technology, 1. Venezuela estimates its recoverable oil at 2.