The Centre is an international organization whose purpose is to:

• Provide interaction among governments, developers, investors and the industrial/technical academic sectors on an international basis.
• Identify heavy oil, oil sands, bitumen, oil shale, and residuum resources and facilitate their efficient economical and environmentally sound development and use.
• Facilitate the exchange of technical resources and information on heavy oil, oil sands, bitumen, oil shale and residuum sources.
• Provide training programs for heavy oil, oil sands, bitumen, oil shale, and residuum development and use.
• Focus efforts on underdeveloped resources and technologies to convert products to high value, clean energy sources