The Athabasca Oil Sands consist of large bitumen and heavy oil deposits, and these oil sands are situated in Alberta close to Fort MacMurray. The region is home to the biggest bitumen deposit in the world, and the original Cree population in the area used the deposits from the surface of the sand to waterproof canoes. Today several oil companies have operations in the area and Fort MacMurray is a vital part of the oil recovery operations. The Athabasca Oil Sands are not actually pure sand, instead the material is a mixture of water, silica sand, cruse bitumen, and clay minerals all combined together. The oil produced from these oil sands is vital to meeting the oil and energy needs of Alberta and the rest of Canada.

The Athabasca Oil Sands may also be referred to as the Alberta tar sands, the Athabasca tar sands, or just the sands or oil sands to locals in the area. The buries oil products are situated underneath many acres of forest and peat bogs. There are more than one and a half trillion barrels of crude bitumen contained in the Athabasca Oil Sands. Fort MacMurray has seen an incredible amount of growth over the last 10 years as more oil companies have started to explore, develop, and recover crude bitumen and other petroleum products. Much of the population of Fort MacMurray relies on the oil sands for their livelihood, and the economic boom continues to grow and expand even today. There are always employment opportunities for those who are looking for work in the oil industry in this area.