The world is not running out of oil any time soon, at least not the easier to get to, lighter kind. It is estimated that there are of the order of a trillion barrels of heavy oil in the world that can be produced at the current oil price. Is this good news? Not necessarily. These heavy oils, like the tar sands in Alberta or the shale oil in the Rockies, are currently being produced with techniques that are not environmentally friendly.

Professor Tony Kovscek from Stanford University takes us on a tour of heavy oil: where can it be found? How is it produced? and most importantly, what can be done now and in the near future to clean up the production?