Not doubting your experience , just giving my experience . For a long time they referred to as tar sands or oil sands . It was only more recently that the industry started pushing oil sands as the preferred term as it sounds a little better in theory anyways , and environmentalists coopted tar sands for is dirty connotations . from this byanyothernameBut the dreaded term tar sands will probably remain permitted language in the oil patch when oldtimers are talking amongst themselves . It ' s a bit like an Irishman happily calling himself a mick and then flying into a rage when a stranger does it . Engineers , geologists , and rig workers have always used tar sands and oil sands interchangeably in the past . Karl Clark , the chemist who discovered how to turn bitumen into synthetic oil , didn ' t mind calling them the tar sands . Neither did Howard Pew , the Sun Oil boss whose quirky curiosity led to their commercialization . The people of Alberta know and revere these names they aren ' t really as afraid of the Tword as they let on .