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Hard Hat North Oil Sands Jobs Guide
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Oil sands sites & operators

Job postings and forums talk about 'Kearl' or 'Horizon,' not the parent company. Here's who actually runs each named site, whether it digs or drills, and where it sits -- checked against each operator's own information.

Key facts

Kearl distance from Fort McMurray
about 70 km north
Source: Imperial Oil, accessed 2026-09-07
Fort Hills distance
about 90 km north
Source: Suncor, accessed 2026-09-07
Syncrude operator since
2021 (Suncor)
Source: Suncor, accessed 2026-09-07
Newest project
Blackrod (IPC) -- steam injection started December 2025

Most people looking for oil sands work search by the site name they've heard about, not the corporate name on the paycheque. That's useful, because the company that owns a site isn't always the one hiring for it day to day, and ownership in this industry moves around more than people expect -- asset swaps, buyouts, and operatorship handovers happen every year or two. Below is every major named operation, who currently runs it, what kind of site it is, and roughly where it sits. Treat "operator" as the company actually running the site and posting the jobs -- ownership splits behind it can be more complicated and aren't the point here.

Kearl

Operator: Imperial Oil. Type: surface mine. Location: about 70 km north of Fort McMurray, in the Athabasca region. Imperial and ExxonMobil jointly own Kearl, but Imperial operates it and runs the hiring.

Horizon

Operator: Canadian Natural Resources (CNRL). Type: surface mine with on-site upgrading. Location: about 70 km north of Fort McMurray and roughly 20 km north of Fort MacKay. CNRL owns and operates Horizon outright.

Albian (Muskeg River and Jackpine mines)

Operator: Canadian Natural Resources (CNRL). Type: surface mines. Location: near Fort MacKay, in the Athabasca region, close to Horizon. Albian was long a joint venture with Shell; CNRL and Shell completed an asset swap in late 2025 (effective March 1, 2025) that gave CNRL 100% of the operated interest in the two Albian mines, in exchange for Shell taking a larger share of the separate Scotford Upgrader. If you see an older source calling this a Shell/CNRL joint operation, that's now out of date.

Syncrude (Mildred Lake and Aurora)

Operator: Suncor, since 2021. Type: surface mine with on-site upgrading. Location: Mildred Lake is roughly 35-40 km north of Fort McMurray; Aurora is a separate mine further north, near Fort MacKay. Syncrude is still a joint venture -- Suncor holds the largest share, with Imperial Oil, Sinopec, and CNOOC also owning stakes -- but Suncor runs the site and does the hiring.

Suncor Base Plant

Operator: Suncor. Type: surface mine (Millennium and North Steepbank pits) with on-site upgraders. Location: about 30 km north of Fort McMurray. Suncor's original oil sands site, running since 1967.

Fort Hills

Operator: Suncor, sole owner as of the mid-2020s after buying out its former joint venture partners' stakes. Type: open-pit truck-and-shovel mine. Location: about 90 km north of Fort McMurray, in the Athabasca region.

Firebag

Operator: Suncor. Type: SAGD (in-situ). Location: about 120 km northeast of Fort McMurray.

MacKay River

Operator: Suncor. Type: SAGD (in-situ) -- this was Suncor's first in-situ facility. Location: about 60 km northwest of Fort McMurray.

Foster Creek

Operator: Cenovus, 100% owned. Type: SAGD (in-situ) -- the first commercial SAGD project in the industry, running since 2001. Location: on the Cold Lake Air Weapons Range, roughly 330 km northeast of Edmonton, near Cold Lake, AB.

Christina Lake

Operator: Cenovus, 100% owned. Type: SAGD (in-situ). Location: about 150 km southeast of Fort McMurray.

Christina Lake North (formerly MEG Energy's Christina Lake project)

Operator: Cenovus. Type: SAGD (in-situ). Location: about 150 km south of Fort McMurray -- an adjacent but separate lease from Cenovus's own Christina Lake project above. This was MEG Energy's flagship project and MEG operated it independently for years; Cenovus acquired MEG Energy outright, closing November 13, 2025, and now runs this site under the "Christina Lake North" name. If you're applying based on older information that names MEG Energy as the employer here, check current postings -- MEG Energy no longer exists as a separate operator.

Sunrise

Operator: Cenovus, 100% owned and operated (came into Cenovus through the 2021 Husky Energy merger). Type: SAGD (in-situ). Location: about 60 km northeast of Fort McMurray.

Cold Lake

Operator: Imperial Oil. Type: in-situ thermal (Imperial uses cyclic steam stimulation across most of the field, with a solvent-assisted SAGD pilot underway). Location: northeastern Alberta, near the city of Cold Lake -- a separate lease from Cenovus's Foster Creek, even though both sit in the wider Cold Lake area.

Blackrod

Operator: International Petroleum Corporation (IPC), 100% owned. Type: SAGD (in-situ). Location: northern Alberta, south of Fort McMurray. This is the newest major SAGD project in the region -- steam injection started in December 2025, with first oil forecast for Q3 2026, so hiring here is still ramping up rather than established.

Ownership and operatorship in the oil sands change often -- asset swaps, mergers, and buyouts happen most years. Everything above was checked against the operator's own site or a company filing on 2026-09-07 (see Sources). Before you apply anywhere, confirm the current operator's name on the site's own careers page -- don't rely on this page, a forum post, or an old job ad.

Frequently asked questions

Who operates Kearl?

Imperial Oil operates Kearl. Imperial and ExxonMobil are the joint owners (Imperial roughly 70%, ExxonMobil roughly 30%), but Imperial runs the site day to day and does the hiring.

What's the difference between a mine and a SAGD site?

A mine (like Kearl, Horizon, Syncrude, Base Plant, Fort Hills, or the Albian mines) digs up oil sands with haul trucks and shovels, then processes it on site. SAGD (steam-assisted gravity drainage) sites -- Firebag, MacKay River, Foster Creek, Christina Lake, Cold Lake, Blackrod -- never dig anything up; they drill well pairs and inject steam underground to melt the bitumen so it can be pumped to the surface. Mines hire more heavy-equipment operators and mechanics; SAGD sites hire more process and control-room operators.

Who runs Syncrude now?

Suncor. Suncor became Syncrude's operator in 2021 -- not a recent change, even though it sometimes gets reported as new. Syncrude itself is still a joint venture (Suncor holds the largest share, alongside Imperial Oil, Sinopec, and CNOOC); Suncor just runs daily operations and does the hiring for Mildred Lake and Aurora.

Where is Fort Hills?

About 90 km north of Fort McMurray, in the Athabasca region. It's an open-pit mine, and Suncor is the sole owner and operator (it bought out its former partners' shares in the mid-2020s).

Are there really two different Christina Lake oil sands projects?

There were: Cenovus's original Christina Lake project and a separate, adjacent Christina Lake project that used to belong to MEG Energy. Cenovus bought MEG Energy outright, closing in November 2025, so as of now both are Cenovus operations -- Cenovus refers to the former MEG project as "Christina Lake North." They're still two distinct leases next to each other, not one site.

Sources

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