Smoking chimneys at an industrial plant at sunset. This is the tar sands upgrader plant at the Syncrude plant in Alberta, Canada. The tar sands are the largest deposits of bitumen in the world, and the extraction and processing into synthetic crude forms the largest industrial project on the planet. It has attracted criticism for its environmental impact. The oil produced is three times more carbon intensive than oil from conventional supplies. The area has also seen a very fast rate of deforestation, and polluted water from the plant has leached out into the Athabasca River.