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In the rapid-fire lingo of Neil Camarta, the raw material of the oil sands is not bitumen - it is "dirt." There is good dirt (rich in recoverable oil) and bad dirt (with thinner output). The massive capital projects that create oil from dirt are not mines and upgraders but "pots and pans."

Over the past 20 years, Mr. Camarta has fashioned a whole short-hand language around the oil sands - and now people in the industry talk like him. It's testimony to the legacy of this happy warrior who, for many, is the human face of the oil sands.

Now at 57, with oil around $90 (U.S.) a barrel and projected to rise to $100 again, he wants a crack at one more big project. It's almost as if he's wearing a sandwich board declaring: "Battle-scarred oil sands executive for hire."

Mr. Camarta is retiring on Monday as an executive vice-president of Suncor Energy Inc., but he makes it clear it's not the end of the line. "I love the oil sands business. Give me some dirt, some good people and a few billion dollars and I can have a lot of fun."

In his 18 months at Suncor, he did what he was assigned to do, combining the natural gas operations of Suncor and Petro-Canada, where he had worked before the mega-merger of the two companies in 2009.

But while he attacked his job with customary gusto, natural gas is not his thing - it's as if Lang Lang had joined a bluegrass band - and now he can get back to his real passion, the mucky magic of turning bitumen into light crude.

If the oil sands are an unpopular cause in some circles, that's not the kind of thing to deter Mr. Camarta, who is resilient in dealing with hard realities. He has been coping with a form of muscular dystrophy that attacks his face, shoulder and upper arms, restricting his ability to do simple chores such as hoisting a carry-on bag into an overhead bin.

But he has learned ways to adjust, and now he wants to create a foundation to help solve this affliction called FSH - facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy. He says there is a new genetic model that within 10 years could yield a cure.

"I want to try to accelerate that," he says, adding that it will not help him personally, but it is his gift to future generations, including his family. His three daughters have FSH, as does his mother.

This high-energy optimism has been his calling card in the energy industry, as well. He has few illusions about the challenges of the oil sands because he has seen the periodic labour shortages, erratically fluctuating costs and environmental resistance. It's a perspective gained from having worked with four of the biggest players in Fort McMurray.

"If you had to pick a negative poster boy for the oil sands, that's me - someone who has had more overruns, more fires and more problems," he says. "I've got lots of scars on my back from all that, but I enjoy it."

That positive approach is what impressed Jim Boucher, the chief of the Fort McKay First Nation, north of Fort McMurray, who first encountered Mr. Camarta as a Shell Canada executive about 14 years ago. "Whenever he makes crazy promises, he makes sure he lives up to them," the chief says.

Mr. Boucher says his community has benefited economically from the oil sands, and from Mr. Camarta's role. And when the Fort McKay nation opposed a big Shell upgrader proposed for the area, Mr. Camarta listened. The facility was eventually constructed northeast of Edmonton.

Mr. Camarta hails from a farm near Edson, Alta., to which his Italian grandfather immigrated, arriving from Europe through New York's Ellis Island. His grandfather and his fellow homesteaders constituted what Neil calls perhaps the largest Italian ranching community in Canada.

Mr. Camarta came out of the University of Alberta as a chemical engineer and went to work at Shell Canada Ltd., and in the 1990s rose to run major oil sands jobs, including the $8-billion (Canadian) Athabasca project. That's where he earned a lot of his scars from crisis management.

In an earlier interview, he said parent Royal Dutch Shell PLC wanted him to take a job at head office in the Netherlands but he didn't want to leave Alberta. So he retired from Shell in his early 50s - a move which lasted about 24 hours. Petro-Canada came calling and he moved over to manage its oil sands operations. While at Petrocan, he sat on the board of Syncrude, one of the original oil sands producers.

Then came the merger with Suncor where Mr. Camarta played a key transitional role in joining the two companies. He has only good things to say about Suncor and its leadership, and says the newly combined natural gas business is on the road to profitability. But his job was done, and there were younger people coming on.

Indeed, he is one of a number of industry senior executives who have moved to the sidelines with the rash of recent energy mergers. Mr. Camarta only says he was ready for a new gig. "I'm not running away from anything - it's just that the stars line up. For me the time is right for a change."

That change, he hopes, is another big oil sands project. He'd like to be involved when oil goes above $100 (U.S.), but it would be a mixed blessing if the industry reverts to another hypercompetitive, high-cost scramble for people and materials. The rising oil price "is good news because it really does help make these projects more profitable." But, he adds, "we just have to be really careful that we don't blow our toes off."

Whatever happens, he will attack the challenge with classic optimism. "That's one of my weaknesses - I'm too optimistic. Somebody has to be and that's me. I lay it out there and say 'Here's what I think we can do.' Then fear of failure drives me to try to make it happen."

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