Race is on to revive Canada's beleaguered oil sands industry

Calgary

IN the boreal forests and on the remote prairies of Alberta, a handful of firms are running pilot projects they hope will end a two-decade drought in innovation and stem the exodus of top global energy firms from Canada's oil sands.

They are searching for a breakthrough that will cut the cost of pumping the tar-like oil from the country's vast underground bitumen reservoirs and better compete with the booming shale industry in the United States.

If they fail, a bigger chunk of the world's third-largest oil reserves …