Canadian Natural Resources Limited, or CNRL or Canadian Natural is a senior Canadian oil and natural gas company that operates primarily in the Western Canadian provinces of British Columbia,
Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba, with offshore operations in the
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...
sector of the
North Sea
The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Norway, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. An epeiric sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian S ...
, and offshore
Côte d'Ivoire
Ivory Coast, also known as Côte d'Ivoire, officially the Republic of Côte d'Ivoire, is a country on the southern coast of West Africa. Its capital is Yamoussoukro, in the centre of the country, while its largest city and economic centre is ...
and
Gabon
Gabon (; ; snq, Ngabu), officially the Gabonese Republic (french: République gabonaise), is a country on the west coast of Central Africa. Located on the equator, it is bordered by Equatorial Guinea to the northwest, Cameroon to the north ...
. The company, which is headquartered in
Calgary
Calgary ( ) is the largest city in the western Canadian province of Alberta and the largest metro area of the three Prairie Provinces. As of 2021, the city proper had a population of 1,306,784 and a metropolitan population of 1,481,806, makin ...
,
Alberta
Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest Ter ...
,
[ has the largest undeveloped base in the ]Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin
The Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin (WCSB) underlies of Western Canada including southwestern Manitoba, southern Saskatchewan, Alberta, northeastern British Columbia and the southwest corner of the Northwest Territories. This vast sedimentary ...
. It is the largest independent producer of natural gas
Natural gas (also called fossil gas or simply gas) is a naturally occurring mixture of gaseous hydrocarbons consisting primarily of methane in addition to various smaller amounts of other higher alkanes. Low levels of trace gases like carbo ...
in Western Canada and the largest producer of heavy crude oil
Heavy crude oil (or extra heavy crude oil) is highly-viscous oil that cannot easily flow from production wells under normal reservoir conditions.
It is referred to as "heavy" because its density or specific gravity is higher than that of light cru ...
in Canada.[
In the 2020 ]Forbes Global 2000
The ''Forbes'' Global 2000 is an annual ranking of the top 2000 public companies in the world, published by ''Forbes'' magazine. "The Global 2000" annual ranking is assembled by ''Forbes'' using a weighted assessment of four metrics: sales, profi ...
, Canadian Natural Resources was ranked as the 306th-largest public company in the world.
Overview
CBC described CNRL as a "Calgary-based oil and gas giant." CNRL owns and operates Horizon Oil Sands
Horizon Oil Sands is an oil sands mining and upgrading project in Bitumount, Alberta, Canada. The project includes a surface oil sands mining and bitumen extraction plant, complemented by on-site bitumen upgrading with associated infrastructure. ...
and the Athabasca Oil Sands Project
Albian Sands Energy Inc. is the operator of the Muskeg River Mine and Jack Pine Mine, an oil sands mining project located north of Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada. It is a joint venture between Shell Canada (10%), CNRL (70%) and Chevron Canad ...
(AOSP) which are about 70 km north of Fort McMurray, Alberta
Fort McMurray ( ) is an urban service area in the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo in Alberta, Canada. It is located in northeast Alberta, in the middle of the Athabasca oil sands, surrounded by boreal forest. It has played a significant ...
in the Athabasca region. According to a May 13, 2021 Forbes report, CNRL had a market capitulation of $36.6 billion, and sales of $12.6 billion with 9,709 employees.
Operations
As of December 31, 2018, the company had proved reserves of , of which 63% were synthetic crude
Synthetic crude is the output from a bitumen/extra heavy oil upgrader facility used in connection with oil sand production. It may also refer to shale oil, an output from an oil shale pyrolysis. The properties of the synthetic crude depend on the ...
.[
The company also owns two operated pipeline systems, an electricity ]cogeneration
Cogeneration or combined heat and power (CHP) is the use of a heat engine or power station to generate electricity and useful heat at the same time.
Cogeneration is a more efficient use of fuel or heat, because otherwise- wasted heat from elect ...
facility, and a 50% interest in the North West Redwater Partnership.[
In 2018, the company averaged production of per day, of which 76% was ]petroleum
Petroleum, also known as crude oil, or simply oil, is a naturally occurring yellowish-black liquid mixture of mainly hydrocarbons, and is found in geological formations. The name ''petroleum'' covers both naturally occurring unprocessed crud ...
and natural gas liquids
Natural-gas condensate, also called natural gas liquids, is a low-density mixture of hydrocarbon liquids that are present as gaseous components in the raw natural gas produced from many natural gas fields. Some gas species within the raw natur ...
and 24% was natural gas
Natural gas (also called fossil gas or simply gas) is a naturally occurring mixture of gaseous hydrocarbons consisting primarily of methane in addition to various smaller amounts of other higher alkanes. Low levels of trace gases like carbo ...
. In 2018, production came as follows:[
* ]Synthetic crude
Synthetic crude is the output from a bitumen/extra heavy oil upgrader facility used in connection with oil sand production. It may also refer to shale oil, an output from an oil shale pyrolysis. The properties of the synthetic crude depend on the ...
from oil sands mining in Northern Alberta
Northern Alberta is a geographic region located in the Canadian province of Alberta.
An informally defined cultural region, the boundaries of Northern Alberta are not fixed. Under some schemes, the region encompasses everything north of the cent ...
- 39% of production.
* Natural gas, primarily produced in Alberta
Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest Ter ...
, British Columbia
British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...
, and Saskatchewan
Saskatchewan ( ; ) is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Western Canada, western Canada, bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, to the northeast by Nunavut, and on t ...
- 24% of production
* Light and medium crude oil and natural gas liquids - 13% of production
* Bitumen
Asphalt, also known as bitumen (, ), is a sticky, black, highly viscous liquid or semi-solid form of petroleum. It may be found in natural deposits or may be a refined product, and is classed as a pitch. Before the 20th century, the term a ...
- 10% of production
* Primary heavy crude oil
Heavy crude oil (or extra heavy crude oil) is highly-viscous oil that cannot easily flow from production wells under normal reservoir conditions.
It is referred to as "heavy" because its density or specific gravity is higher than that of light cru ...
- 8% of production
* Pelican Lake heavy crude oil - 6% of production
The company's largest operation is the Horizon Oil Sands
Horizon Oil Sands is an oil sands mining and upgrading project in Bitumount, Alberta, Canada. The project includes a surface oil sands mining and bitumen extraction plant, complemented by on-site bitumen upgrading with associated infrastructure. ...
project which is north of Fort McMurray
Fort McMurray ( ) is an urban service area in the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo in Alberta, Canada. It is located in northeast Alberta, in the middle of the Athabasca oil sands, surrounded by boreal forest. It has played a significant ...
, Alberta. It includes a surface oil sands mining and bitumen extraction plant and bitumen upgrading with associated infrastructure. The company sanctioned the Horizon Oil Sands Project in February 2005 and it began production in early 2009.
History
The company was founded on November 7, 1973 as AEX Minerals Corporation and adopted the present name in 1975.
In 1998, the company sold land to Remington Energy for C$127.5 million.
In 1999, the company and Penn West Petroleum (now Obsidian Energy
Obsidian Energy Ltd. (previously known as Penn West Exploration Ltd., Penn West Petroleum and Penn West Energy Trust) is a mid-sized Canadian oil and natural gas production company based in Calgary, Alberta.
For a while it was one of the S&P/TSX ...
) acquired the Canadian assets of BP Amoco.
In 2000, the company acquired Ranger Oil
Ranger Oil Limited was a Canadian independent petroleum company that operated between 1950 and 2000. Ranger was founded as the Maygill Petroleum Company Limited with the aim to develop oil leases in the Steveville, Alberta area. In 1954, Jack Pier ...
for C$1.08 billion.
In 2002, the company acquired Rio Alto for $2.4 billion.
In February 2004, the company acquired Petrovera Resources, a joint venture
A joint venture (JV) is a business entity created by two or more parties, generally characterized by shared ownership, shared returns and risks, and shared governance. Companies typically pursue joint ventures for one of four reasons: to acces ...
between Encana
Ovintiv Inc. is a hydrocarbon exploration and production company organized in Delaware and headquartered in Denver, United States. It was founded and headquartered in Calgary, Alberta, under its previous name Encana. It was the largest energy c ...
and ConocoPhillips
ConocoPhillips Company is an American multinational corporation engaged in hydrocarbon exploration and production. It is based in the Energy Corridor district of Houston, Texas.
The company has operations in 15 countries and has production in ...
.
In September 2006, the company acquired the Canadian operations of Anadarko Petroleum
Anadarko Petroleum Corporation was a company engaged in hydrocarbon exploration. It was organized in Delaware and headquartered in two skyscrapers in The Woodlands, Texas: the Allison Tower and the Hackett Tower, both named after former CEOs of ...
for US$4.1 billion.
In April 2014, the company acquired the conventional assets in Canada of Devon Energy
Devon Energy Corporation is an energy company engaged in hydrocarbon exploration in the United States. It is organized in Delaware and its corporate operative headquarters are in the 50-story Devon Energy Center in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Its ...
for C$3.125 billion.
In 2017, the company acquired the Canadian oil sands assets of Royal Dutch Shell
Shell plc is a British multinational oil and gas company headquartered in London, England. Shell is a public limited company with a primary listing on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) and secondary listings on Euronext Amsterdam and the New Yo ...
, including a 70% working interest in the Athabasca Oil Sands Project
Albian Sands Energy Inc. is the operator of the Muskeg River Mine and Jack Pine Mine, an oil sands mining project located north of Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada. It is a joint venture between Shell Canada (10%), CNRL (70%) and Chevron Canad ...
, for $5.3 billion in cash plus 97,560,975 shares. The shares were sold in 2018.
In August 2018, the company acquired the idled Joslyn oil sands project from Total S.A.
TotalEnergies SE is a French multinational integrated energy and petroleum company founded in 1924 and one of the seven supermajor oil companies. Its businesses cover the entire oil and gas chain, from crude oil and natural gas exploration and ...
and its partners.
In September 2018, the company acquired Laricina Energy for $46 million.
In June 2019, the company acquired the remaining assets in Canada of Devon Energy
Devon Energy Corporation is an energy company engaged in hydrocarbon exploration in the United States. It is organized in Delaware and its corporate operative headquarters are in the 50-story Devon Energy Center in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Its ...
.
Incidents
Horizon tank farm collapse fatalities
The Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of Alberta (APEGA) has reopened its inquiries into a fatal accident that occurred in the oil sands in 2007.
The association’s director of communications told the Edmonton Journal that they had only recently received a final copy of the Alberta Occupational Health and Safety Incident report into what caused the collapse of a large tank under construction at the Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. Horizon oil sands site.
“Even though it’s been a long time between the time the event occurred and the time that report was done, we felt obliged to take a closer look at that new information,” said Mulder.
The collapse of the tank roof structure occurred during windy conditions on April 24, 2007. The large tank was one of 11 being constructed by SSEC Canada, a Chinese company, on the east tank farm on the CNRL Horizon site, 70 kilometres north of Fort McMurray.The tank was to be a circular steel high-cone roof tank, 56.5 metres in diameter and 19.8 metres high. At the time of the accident the tank’s roof support structure was only partially complete and the roof was suspended by cables. A team of temporary workers from China were inside the tank working on the structure when it started to collapse inwards. Some of the workers managed to escape through holes in the tank’s wall, but an “electrical consultant” who was standing on top of a welding machine was struck by falling steel and thrown onto scaffolding. He was pronounced dead at the scene. A scaffolder who was on the tank floor was also crushed by the falling steel and died on the way to hospital in Fort McMurray. Two other workers in the tank were seriously injured.
APEGA says it is now investigating because the health and safety report indicates that a professional engineer was not involved as was required.
Indeed, the analysis in the health and safety report includes several indications that professional oversight was lacking and labour rules were being ignored:
For example, at 8.1.2: “Tenth Construction Company of Sinopec
China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation (中国石油化工股份有限公司) or Sinopec (), is a Chinese oil and gas enterprise based in Beijing. It is listed in Hong Kong and also trades in Shanghai.
Sinopec Limited's parent, Sinopec Gr ...
(TCC) Chinese construction company did not take reasonable practical measures to protect the health and safety of the Electrical Cosultant. The tank roof support structure that collapsed onto the worker was a skeleton structure. The erection procedures for erecting the roof support structures had not been prepared and certified by a Professional Engineer. The Electrical Consultant did not have a work permit as a temporary foreign worker and thus should not have been working at this work site.”
The report makes it clear that the structural design of the tank was inadequate:At 7.2.6: “The roof support structure was a completely bolted structure using ASTM A-307 Grade B bolts without the use of wedges or washes. The bolted roof support structure, which was required to be flexible, did not have the necessary restraints to resist the lateral forces generated by the wind.
And, at 7.27. “The number and size of guy wires that were supporting the roof support structure in tanks 72-TK-1A and 72-TK-1B, was not designed for the static and dynamic loads imposed by the 33 to 45 km/h wind that occurred on the day of the incident, let alone for the maximum expected wind speed of 83 km/h as determined by the Alberta Building Code, or 190 km/h recommended by the American Petroleum Institute
The American Petroleum Institute (API) is the largest U.S. trade association for the oil and natural gas industry. It claims to represent nearly 600 corporations involved in production, refinement, distribution, and many other aspects of the pet ...
.”
Primrose oil seeps
In June 2013, the Alberta Energy Regulator
The Alberta Energy Regulator (AER) is an Alberta corporation, with its main office in Calgary, Alberta. The AER's mandate under the ''Responsible Energy Development Act'' (REDA), passed on 10 December 2012 and proclaimed on 17 June 2013, is to ...
investigated reports of leaks in the company's Primrose East oil sands project. The regulator concluded that nearly a million litres of bitumen mixed with water had seeped into the ground around the site.
Slave Lake pipeline spill
In April 2014, a pipeline owned by the company spilled 70,000 liters of oil and processed water northwest of Slave Lake
Slave Lake is a town in northern Alberta, Canada that is surrounded by the Municipal District of Lesser Slave River No. 124. It is approximately northwest of Edmonton. It is located on the southeast shore of Lesser Slave Lake at the junction o ...
, Alberta
Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest Ter ...
.
Red Earth Creek pipeline spill
In November 2014, a pipeline owned by the company spilled almost 60,000 liters of crude oil into a muskeg
Muskeg (Ojibwe: mashkiig; cr, maskīk; french: fondrière de mousse, lit. ''moss bog'') is a peat-forming ecosystem found in several northern climates, most commonly in Arctic and boreal areas. Muskeg is approximately synonymous with bog or ...
region 27 kilometers from Red Earth Creek, Alberta.
Leadership
Chairman of the Board
Allan P. Markin, 1989–2012
N. Murray Edwards
Norman Murray Edwards (born December 10, 1959) is a Canadian oil sands financier and a co-owner of the Calgary Flames hockey team. With an estimated net worth of US$2.7 billion (as of December 2022), Edwards was ranked by ''Forbes'' as the 32nd ...
, 2012–
President
Dr Aaro E. Aho, 1973–1975
H. Stanley Cornwell, 1975–1976
Robert A. Boulware, 1976–1985
John G. Langille, 1985–2005
Stephen W. Laut, 2005–2018
Timothy S. McKay, 2018–
See also
* Petroleum industry in Canada
Petroleum production in Canada is a major industry which is important to the economy of North America. Canada has the third largest oil reserves in the world and is the world's fourth largest oil producer and fourth largest oil exporter. In 20 ...
* Environmental issues in Alberta
* Western Canadian Select
Western Canadian Select (WCS) is a heavy sour blend of crude oil that is one of North America's largest heavy crude oil streams and, historically, its cheapest. It was established in December 2004 as a new heavy oil stream by EnCana (now Cenov ...
* Kirby Lake Aerodrome
References
External links
*
{{authority control
Oil companies of Canada
Natural gas companies of Canada
Companies based in Calgary
Energy companies established in 1973
Non-renewable resource companies established in 1973
Natural resources organizations
Companies listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange
S&P/TSX 60