Canada’s remaining established oil reserves are estimated at 167.7 billion barrels, of which 97% is found in oil sands. Refineries in Alberta, and many in the US, receive bitumen feedstocks via pipelines for processing into value-added products such as gasoline and diesel fuel. However, pipeline specifications require that bitumen either be upgraded to a lighter synthetic crude oil (SCO) or be diluted with a solvent to reduce viscosity and enhance density. SCO production is capital intensive and operationally costly and also results in significant greenhouse gas emissions. While adding a diluent to bitumen is not economic, this work addresses current challenges being faced by the oil sands industry and technology opportunities for improving the competitiveness of bitumen in the world market. To this end, the discussion focuses on oil sands distillate, which constitutes ∼44% of the bitumen. It has been found that this virgin distillate is a premium commodity in terms of diluent savings for pipelining and excellent processability for producing transportation fuels that may require some quality improvements.