Melville Island is a big, cold, and snowy island in Northern Canada where there are some areas with oil sands. Oil sands are like a huge pile of sand, but instead of just sand, they have a lot of oil in them.
To get the oil out of the sand, people need to use special equipment and really hot water. They dig a big hole in the oil sand and fill it with hot water. Then they wait for the oil to separate from the sand and float to the top of the water.
After they've done this, they collect the oil and take it away to be turned into things like gasoline or heating oil.
Even though getting oil from the sand can be really helpful, it can also have some bad effects on the environment. That's why people are always trying to find better and less harmful ways to get it out.