Petroleum production in Canada is a
major industry which is important to the
economy of North America
The economy of North America comprises more than 579 million people (8% of the world population) in its 23 sovereign states and 15 dependent territories. It is marked by a sharp division between the predominantly English speaking countries o ...
.
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...
has the third largest
oil reserves
An oil is any polarity (chemistry), nonpolar chemical substance that is composed primarily of Hydrocarbon, hydrocarbons and is hydrophobe, hydrophobic (does not mix with water) & lipophilicity, lipophilic (mixes with other oils). Oils are usu ...
in the world and is the world's fourth largest
oil producer and fourth largest
oil exporter
This is a list of oil-producing countries by Petroleum, oil exports based on The World Factbook and other Sources. Many countries also List of countries by oil imports, import oil, and some import more oil than they export.
Countries by rank ...
. In 2019 it produced an average of of
crude oil
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 crude ...
and equivalent. Of that amount, 64% was upgraded from
unconventional oil sands
Oil sands, tar sands, crude bitumen, or bituminous sands, are a type of unconventional petroleum deposit. Oil sands are either loose sands or partially consolidated sandstone containing a naturally occurring mixture of sand, clay, and wate ...
, and the remainder
light crude oil Light crude oil is liquid petroleum that has a low density and flows freely at room temperature. It has a low viscosity, low specific gravity and high API gravity due to the presence of a high proportion of light hydrocarbon fractions. It generally ...
,
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 ...
and
natural-gas condensate
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 ...
.
[ Most of Canadian petroleum production is exported, approximately in 2019, with 98% of the exports going to the United States.][
] Canada is by far the largest single source of oil imports to the United States, providing 43% of US crude oil imports in 2015.
The petroleum industry
The petroleum industry, also known as the oil industry or the oil patch, includes the global processes of exploration, extraction, refining, transportation (often by oil tankers and pipelines), and marketing of petroleum products. The larges ...
in Canada is also referred to as the "Canadian Oil Patch"; the term refers especially to upstream
Upstream may refer to:
* Upstream (bioprocess)
* ''Upstream'' (film), a 1927 film by John Ford
* Upstream (networking)
* ''Upstream'' (newspaper), a newspaper covering the oil and gas industry
* Upstream (petroleum industry)
* Upstream (software ...
operations (exploration and production of oil and gas), and to a lesser degree to downstream
Downstream may refer to:
* Downstream (bioprocess)
* Downstream (manufacturing)
* Downstream (networking)
* Downstream (software development)
* Downstream (petroleum industry)
* Upstream and downstream (DNA), determining relative positions on DNA
* ...
operations (refining, distribution, and selling of oil and gas products). In 2005, almost 25,000 new oil well
An oil well is a drillhole boring in Earth that is designed to bring petroleum oil hydrocarbons to the surface. Usually some natural gas is released as associated petroleum gas along with the oil. A well that is designed to produce only gas may ...
s were spudded (drilled) in Canada. Daily, over 100 new wells are spudded in the province of 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 ...
alone. Although Canada is one of the largest oil producers and exporters in the world, it also imports significant amounts of oil into its eastern provinces since its oil pipelines do not extend all the way across the country and many of its oil refineries cannot handle the types of oil its oil fields produce. In 2017 Canada imported 405,700 bbl/day (barrels per day) and exported 1,115,000 bbl/day of refined petroleum products.
History
The Canadian petroleum industry developed in parallel with that of the United States. The first oil well in Canada was dug by hand (rather than drilled) in 1858 by James Miller Williams
James Miller Williams (September 14, 1818 – November 25, 1890) was a Canadian-American businessman and politician. Williams is best known for establishing the first commercially successful oil well in 1858 and igniting the first oil boom i ...
near his asphalt plant at Oil Springs, Ontario
Oil Springs is a village in Lambton County, Ontario, Canada, located along Former Provincial Highway 21 south of Oil City. The village, an enclave within Enniskillen Township, is the site of North America's first commercial oil well. It is home ...
. At a depth of he struck oil, one year before "Colonel" Edwin Drake
Edwin Laurentine Drake (March 29, 1819 – November 9, 1880), also known as Colonel Drake, was an American businessman and the first American to successfully drill for oil.
Early life
Edwin Drake was born in Greenville, New York on March 2 ...
drilled the first oil well in the United States. Williams later went on to found "The Canadian Oil Company" which qualified as the world’s first integrated oil company.
Petroleum production in Ontario expanded rapidly, and practically every significant producer became his own refiner. By 1864, 20 refineries were operating in Oil Springs and seven in Petrolia, Ontario
Petrolia is a town in southwestern Ontario, Canada. It is part of Lambton County and is surrounded by Enniskillen Township. It is billed as "Canada's Victorian Oil Town" and is often credited with starting the oil industry in North America, a ...
. However, Ontario's status as an important oil producer did not last long. By 1880 Canada was a net importer of oil from the United States.
Canada's unique geography
Geography (from Greek: , ''geographia''. Combination of Greek words ‘Geo’ (The Earth) and ‘Graphien’ (to describe), literally "earth description") is a field of science devoted to the study of the lands, features, inhabitants, and ...
, geology
Geology () is a branch of natural science concerned with Earth and other astronomical objects, the features or rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which they change over time. Modern geology significantly overlaps all other Ear ...
, resources and patterns of settlement have been key factors in the history of Canada
The history of Canada covers the period from the arrival of the Paleo-Indians to North America thousands of years ago to the present day. Prior to European colonization, the lands encompassing present-day Canada were inhabited for millennia by ...
. The development of the 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 ...
sector helps illustrate how they have helped make the nation quite distinct from the United States. Unlike the United States, which has a number of different major oil producing regions, the vast majority of Canada's petroleum resources are concentrated in the enormous 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 ...
(WCSB), one of the largest petroleum-containing formations in the world. It underlies of Western Canada
Western Canada, also referred to as the Western provinces, Canadian West or the Western provinces of Canada, and commonly known within Canada as the West, is a Canadian region that includes the four western provinces just north of the Canada ...
including most or part of four western provinces and one northern territory. Consisting of a massive wedge of sedimentary rock
Sedimentary rocks are types of rock that are formed by the accumulation or deposition of mineral or organic particles at Earth's surface, followed by cementation. Sedimentation is the collective name for processes that cause these particles ...
up to thick extending from the Rocky Mountains
The Rocky Mountains, also known as the Rockies, are a major mountain range and the largest mountain system in North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch in straight-line distance from the northernmost part of western Canada, to New Mexico in ...
in the west to the Canadian Shield
The Canadian Shield (french: Bouclier canadien ), also called the Laurentian Plateau, is a geologic shield, a large area of exposed Precambrian igneous and high-grade metamorphic rocks. It forms the North American Craton (or Laurentia), the anc ...
in the east, it is far distant from Canada's east and west coast ports as well as its historical industrial centres. It is also far from American industrial centres. Because of its geographic isolation, the area was settled relatively late in the history of Canada, and its true resource potential was not discovered until after World War II. As a result, Canada built its major manufacturing centres near its historic hydroelectric power sources in Ontario and Quebec, rather than its petroleum resources in Alberta and Saskatchewan. Not knowing about its own potential, Canada began to import the vast majority of its petroleum from other countries as it developed into a modern industrial economy.
The province of Alberta lies at the centre of the WCSB and the formation underlies most of the province. The potential of Alberta as an oil-producing province long went unrecognized because it was geologically quite different from American oil producing regions. The first oil well in western Canada
The First Oil Well in Western Canada, also known as Lineham Discovery Well No. 1, is a defunct oil well and national historic site of Canada. Which commemorates the September 21, 1902 oil strike in what is now Waterton Lakes National Park, Al ...
was drilled in southern Alberta in 1902, but did not produce for long and served to mislead geologists about the true nature of Alberta's subsurface geology. The Turner Valley
Turner Valley is a town in the Calgary Metropolitan Region of Alberta, Canada that is surrounded by Foothills County. It is on Highway 22 (Cowboy Trail), west of Black Diamond and approximately southwest of Calgary. It was named after Robert a ...
oil field was discovered in 1914, and for a time was the biggest oil field in the British Empire
The British Empire was composed of the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It began with the overseas possessions and trading posts esta ...
, but again it misled geologists about the nature of Alberta's geology. In Turner Valley, the mistakes oil companies made led to billions of dollars in damage to the oil field by gas flaring
A gas flare, alternatively known as a flare stack, flare boom, ground flare, or flare pit is a gas combustion device used in places such as petroleum refineries, chemical plants and natural gas processing plants, oil or gas extraction sites hav ...
which not only burned billions of dollars worth of gas with no immediate market, but destroyed the field's gas drive that enabled the oil to be produced. The gas flares in Turner Valley were visible in the sky from Calgary, away. As a result of the highly visible wastage, the Alberta government launched vigorous political and legal attacks on the Canadian Government and the oil companies that continued until 1938 when the province set up the Alberta Petroleum and Natural Gas Conservation Board and imposed strict conservation legislation.
The status of Canada as an oil importer from the US suddenly changed in 1947 when the Leduc No. 1
Leduc No. 1 was a major crude oil discovery made near Leduc, Alberta, Canada on February 13, 1947. It provided the geological key to Alberta's most prolific conventional oil reserves and resulted in a boom in petroleum exploration and developmen ...
well was drilled a short distance south of Edmonton. Geologists realized that they had completely misunderstood the geology of Alberta, and the highly prolific Leduc oil field, which has since produced over of oil was not a unique formation. There were hundreds more Devonian
The Devonian ( ) is a geologic period and system of the Paleozoic era, spanning 60.3 million years from the end of the Silurian, million years ago (Mya), to the beginning of the Carboniferous, Mya. It is named after Devon, England, whe ...
reef
A reef is a ridge or shoal of rock, coral or similar relatively stable material, lying beneath the surface of a natural body of water. Many reefs result from natural, abiotic processes— deposition of sand, wave erosion planing down rock out ...
formations like it underneath Alberta, many of them full of oil. There was no surface indication of their presence, so they had to be found using reflection seismology
Reflection seismology (or seismic reflection) is a method of exploration geophysics that uses the principles of seismology to estimate the properties of the Earth's subsurface from reflected seismic waves. The method requires a controlled seismi ...
. The main problem for oil companies became how to sell all the oil they had found rather than buying oil for their refineries. Pipelines were built from Alberta through the Midwestern United States to Ontario and to the west coast of British Columbia. Exports to the U.S. increased dramatically.
Most of the oil companies exploring for oil in Alberta were of U.S. origin, and at its peak in 1973, over 78 per cent of Canadian oil and gas production was under foreign ownership and over 90 per cent of oil and gas production companies were under foreign control, mostly American. This foreign ownership spurred the National Energy Program
The National Energy Program (french: Programme énergétique national, NEP) was an energy policy of the Canadian federal government from 1980 to 1985. Created under the Liberal government of Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau by Energy Minister Marc L ...
under the Trudeau government.
Major players
Although around a dozen companies operate oil refineries in Canada, only three companies – Imperial Oil
Imperial Oil Limited (French: ''Compagnie Pétrolière Impériale Ltée'') is a Canadian petroleum company. It is Canada's second-biggest integrated oil company. It is majority owned by American oil company ExxonMobil with around 69.6 percent ...
, Shell Canada
Shell Canada Limited (french: Shell Canada Limitée) is the principal Canadian subsidiary of British energy major Shell plc and one of Canada's largest integrated oil companies. Exploration and production of oil, natural gas and sulphur is a majo ...
and Suncor Energy
Suncor Energy (french: Suncor Énergie) is a Canadian integrated energy company based in Calgary, Alberta. It specializes in production of synthetic crude from oil sands. In the 2020 Forbes Global 2000, Suncor Energy was ranked as the 48th-lar ...
– operate more than one refinery and market products nationally. Other refiners generally operate a single refinery and market products in a particular region. Regional refiners include North Atlantic Refining
North Atlantic Refining Ltd. is a petroleum company based in Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada.
History
In August 1994, the Vitol Group purchased the Come By Chance Refinery from Newfoundland Processing Ltd. and the operating company North Atl ...
in Newfoundland, Irving Oil
Irving Oil Ltd. is a Canadian gasoline, oil, and natural gas producing and exporting company. Considered part of the Irving Group of Companies, it was founded by entrepreneur Kenneth "K.C." Irving and is privately owned by his son, Arthur, and h ...
in New Brunswick, Valero Energy
Valero Energy Corporation is a Fortune 500 international manufacturer and marketer of transportation fuels, other petrochemical products, and power. It is headquartered in San Antonio, Texas, United States. Throughout the United States and Can ...
in Quebec, Federated Co-operatives
Federated Co-operatives Limited (FCL), operating as Co-op, is a co-operative federation providing procurement and distribution to member co-operatives in Western Canada. It was established in 1944 after a series of amalgamations of smaller coop ...
in Saskatchewan, Parkland in British Columbia, and Husky Energy
Husky Energy Inc. is a company engaged in hydrocarbon exploration, headquartered in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. It operates in Western and Atlantic Canada, the United States and the Asia Pacific region, with upstream and downstream business segm ...
in Alberta, BC, and Saskatchewan. While Petro Canada
Petro-Canada is a retail and wholesale marketing brand subsidiary of Suncor Energy. Until 1991, it was a federal Crown corporation (a state-owned enterprise). In August 2009, Petro-Canada merged with Suncor Energy, with Suncor shareholders rece ...
was once owned by the Canadian government, it is now owned by Suncor Energy, which continues to use the Petro Canada label for marketing purposes. In 2007 Canada's three biggest oil companies brought in record profits of $11.75 billion, up 10 percent from $10.72 billion in 2006. Revenues for the Big Three climbed to $80 billion from about $72 billion in 2006. The numbers exclude Shell Canada and ConocoPhillips Canada, two private subsidiaries that produced almost 500,000 barrels per day in 2006.
*Canadian Natural Resources Limited
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 op ...
*Husky Energy
Husky Energy Inc. is a company engaged in hydrocarbon exploration, headquartered in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. It operates in Western and Atlantic Canada, the United States and the Asia Pacific region, with upstream and downstream business segm ...
*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 ...
*Suncor Energy
Suncor Energy (french: Suncor Énergie) is a Canadian integrated energy company based in Calgary, Alberta. It specializes in production of synthetic crude from oil sands. In the 2020 Forbes Global 2000, Suncor Energy was ranked as the 48th-lar ...
*Cenovus Energy
Cenovus Energy Inc. (pronounced se-nō-vus) is an integrated oil and natural gas company headquartered in Calgary, Alberta.
Cenovus was formed in 2009 when Encana Corporation split into two distinct companies, with Cenovus becoming focused on oi ...
Divisions
Approximately 96% of Canadian oil production occurs in three provinces: 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 ...
, 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 ...
, and Newfoundland and Labrador
Newfoundland and Labrador (; french: Terre-Neuve-et-Labrador; frequently abbreviated as NL) is the easternmost province of Canada, in the country's Atlantic region. The province comprises the island of Newfoundland and the continental region ...
. In 2015 Alberta produced 79.2% of Canada's oil, Saskatchewan 13.5%, and the province of Newfoundland and Labrador 4.4%. 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 Manitoba
Manitoba ( ) is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada at the Centre of Canada, longitudinal centre of the country. It is Canada's Population of Canada by province and territory, fifth-most populous province, with a population o ...
produced about 1% apiece. The four Western Canada
Western Canada, also referred to as the Western provinces, Canadian West or the Western provinces of Canada, and commonly known within Canada as the West, is a Canadian region that includes the four western provinces just north of the Canada ...
provinces of Alberta, British Columbia, Saskatchewan and Manitoba all produce their oil from the vast and oil rich 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 ...
, which is centered on Alberta but extends into the other three Western provinces and into the Northwest Territories
The Northwest Territories (abbreviated ''NT'' or ''NWT''; french: Territoires du Nord-Ouest, formerly ''North-Western Territory'' and ''North-West Territories'' and namely shortened as ''Northwest Territory'') is a federal territory of Canada. ...
. The province of Newfoundland and Labrador produces its oil from offshore drilling
Offshore drilling is a mechanical process where a wellbore is drilled below the seabed. It is typically carried out in order to explore for and subsequently extract petroleum that lies in rock formations beneath the seabed. Most commonly, the te ...
on the Grand Banks of Newfoundland
The Grand Banks of Newfoundland are a series of underwater plateaus south-east of the island of Newfoundland on the North American continental shelf. The Grand Banks are one of the world's richest fishing grounds, supporting Atlantic cod, swordf ...
in the western Atlantic Ocean
The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe ...
.
Alberta
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 ...
is Canada's largest oil producing province, providing 79.2% of Canadian oil production in 2015. This included light crude oil Light crude oil is liquid petroleum that has a low density and flows freely at room temperature. It has a low viscosity, low specific gravity and high API gravity due to the presence of a high proportion of light hydrocarbon fractions. It generally ...
, 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 ...
, crude bitumen, synthetic crude oil
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 ...
, and natural-gas condensate
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 ...
. In 2015 Alberta produced an average of of Canada's of oil and equivalent production. Most of its oil production came from its enormous oil sands
Oil sands, tar sands, crude bitumen, or bituminous sands, are a type of unconventional petroleum deposit. Oil sands are either loose sands or partially consolidated sandstone containing a naturally occurring mixture of sand, clay, and wate ...
deposits, whose production has been steadily rising in recent years. These unconventional deposits give Canada the world's third largest oil reserves, which are rivaled only by similar but even larger oil reserves in Venezuela
An oil is any nonpolar chemical substance that is composed primarily of hydrocarbons and is hydrophobic (does not mix with water) & lipophilic (mixes with other oils). Oils are usually flammable and surface active. Most oils are unsaturated ...
, and conventional oil reserves in Saudi Arabia
The proven oil reserves in Saudi Arabia are reportedly the second largest in the world, estimated in 2017 to be (Gbbl hereafter), including 2.5 Gbbl in the Saudi–Kuwaiti neutral zone. This would correspond to more than 50 years of production a ...
. Although Alberta has already produced over 90% of its conventional crude oil reserves, it has produced only 5% of its oil sands, and its remaining oil sands reserves represent 98% of Canada's established oil reserves.
In addition to being the world's largest producer of oil sands bitumen in the world, Alberta is the largest producer of conventional crude oil
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 crude ...
, 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 ...
, 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 ...
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 ...
products in Canada.
Oil sands
Alberta's oil sands underlie of land in the Athabasca, Cold Lake and Peace River areas in northern Alberta - a vast area of boreal forest
Taiga (; rus, тайга́, p=tɐjˈɡa; relates to Mongolic and Turkic languages), generally referred to in North America as a boreal forest or snow forest, is a biome characterized by coniferous forests consisting mostly of pines, spruces, ...
which is larger than England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
. The Athabasca oil sands is the only large oil field in the world suitable for surface mining
Surface mining, including strip mining, open-pit mining and mountaintop removal mining, is a broad category of mining in which soil and rock overlying the mineral deposit (the overburden) are removed, in contrast to underground mining, in which ...
, while the Cold Lake oil sands
The Cold Lake oil sands are a large deposit of oil sands located near Cold Lake, Alberta. Cold Lake is east of Alberta's capital, Edmonton, near Alberta's border with Saskatchewan, and a small portion of the Cold Lake field lies in Saskatchewan.
...
and the Peace River oil sands
Peace is a concept of societal friendship and harmony in the absence of hostility and violence. In a social sense, peace is commonly used to mean a lack of conflict (such as war) and freedom from fear of violence between individuals or groups. ...
must be produced by drilling. With the advancement of extraction methods, bitumen and economical synthetic crude are produced at costs nearing that of conventional crude. This technology grew and developed in Alberta. Many companies employ both conventional strip mining and non-conventional methods to extract the bitumen from the Athabasca deposit. About of the remaining oil sands are considered recoverable at current prices with current technology. The city 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 ...
developed nearby to service the oil sands operations, but its remote location in the otherwise uncleared boreal forest
Taiga (; rus, тайга́, p=tɐjˈɡa; relates to Mongolic and Turkic languages), generally referred to in North America as a boreal forest or snow forest, is a biome characterized by coniferous forests consisting mostly of pines, spruces, ...
became a problem when the entire population of 80,000 had to be evacuated on short notice because of the 2016 Fort McMurray Wildfire
On May 1, 2016, a wildfire began southwest of Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada. On May 3, it swept through the community, forcing the largest wildfire evacuation in Alberta's history, with upwards of 88,000 people forced from their ho ...
which enveloped the city and destroyed over 2,400 homes.
Oil fields
Major oil field
A petroleum reservoir or oil and gas reservoir is a subsurface accumulation of hydrocarbons contained in porous or fractured rock formations.
Such reservoirs form when kerogen (ancient plant matter) is created in surrounding rock by the presence ...
s are found in southeast 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 ...
(Brooks, Medicine Hat, Lethbridge), northwest (Grande Prairie, High Level, Rainbow Lake, Zama), central (Caroline, Red Deer), and northeast (heavy crude oil found adjacent to the oil sands.)
Structural regions include: Foothills, Greater Arch, Deep Basin.
Oil upgraders
There are five oil sands upgrader
An upgrader is a facility that upgrades bitumen (extra heavy oil) into synthetic crude oil. Upgrader plants are typically located close to oil sands production, for example, the Athabasca oil sands in Alberta, Canada or the Orinoco tar sands in V ...
s in Alberta which convert crude bitumen to synthetic crude oil, some of which also produce refined products such as diesel fuel. These have a combined capacity of of crude bitumen.
* The Shell Canada
Shell Canada Limited (french: Shell Canada Limitée) is the principal Canadian subsidiary of British energy major Shell plc and one of Canada's largest integrated oil companies. Exploration and production of oil, natural gas and sulphur is a majo ...
Scotford Upgrader
The Shell Scotford Upgrader is an oilsand upgrader, a facility which processes crude bitumen (extra-heavy crude oil) from oil sands into a wide range of synthetic crude oils. The upgrader is owned by Athabasca Oil Sands Project (AOSP), a joint vent ...
at Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta
Fort Saskatchewan is a city along the North Saskatchewan River in Alberta, Canada. It is northeast of Edmonton, the provincial capital. It is part of the Edmonton census metropolitan area and one of 24 municipalities that constitute the Edmont ...
has a capacity of of crude bitumen.
* The Suncor Energy
Suncor Energy (french: Suncor Énergie) is a Canadian integrated energy company based in Calgary, Alberta. It specializes in production of synthetic crude from oil sands. In the 2020 Forbes Global 2000, Suncor Energy was ranked as the 48th-lar ...
upgrader near 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 ...
has a capacity of of crude bitumen.
* The Syncrude
Syncrude Canada Ltd. is one of the world's largest producers of synthetic crude oil from oil sands and the largest single source producer in Canada. It is located just outside Fort McMurray in the Athabasca Oil Sands, and has a nameplate capaci ...
Mildred Lake upgrader near Fort McMurray has a capacity of
* The China National Offshore Oil Corporation
China National Offshore Oil Corporation, or CNOOC Group (Chinese: 中国海洋石油总公司 Pinyin: ''Zhōngguó Háiyáng Shíyóu Zǒnggōngsī''), is one of the largest national oil companies in China, and the third-largest national oil c ...
(CNOOC) Long Lake upgrader near Fort McMurray has a capacity of
* The Canadian Natural Resources
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 op ...
Ltd (CNRL) Horizon upgrader near Fort McMurray has a capacity of
Oil pipelines
Since it is Canada's largest oil producing province, Alberta is the hub of Canadian crude oil pipeline systems. About of Canada’s oil and gas pipelines operate solely within Alberta’s boundaries and fall under the jurisdiction of 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 ...
. Pipelines that cross provincial or international borders are regulated by the National Energy Board
The National Energy Board was an independent economic regulatory agency created in 1959 by the Government of Canada to oversee "international and inter-provincial aspects of the oil, gas and electric utility industries". Its head office was located ...
.
Major pipelines carrying oil from Alberta to markets in other provinces and US states include:
*The Interprovincial Pipeline System (now called the Enbridge Pipeline System
The Enbridge Pipeline System is an oil pipeline system which transports crude oil and dilbit from Canada to the United States. The system exceeds in length including multiple paths. More than of the system is in the United States while the re ...
) was built in 1950 to transport crude oil from Edmonton, Alberta
Edmonton ( ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Alberta. Edmonton is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Alberta's central region. The city anchor ...
to Superior, Wisconsin
, native_name_lang = oj
, nickname =
, total_type =
, motto =
, image_skyline = Tower Avenue.jpg
, imagesize =
, image_caption = Downtown Superior
, ima ...
where it supplies the Midwestern United States
The Midwestern United States, also referred to as the Midwest or the American Midwest, is one of four census regions of the United States Census Bureau (also known as "Region 2"). It occupies the northern central part of the United States. I ...
. In 1953 it was extended to Sarnia, Ontario
Sarnia is a city in Lambton County, Ontario, Canada. It had a 2021 population of 72,047, and is the largest city on Lake Huron. Sarnia is located on the eastern bank of the junction between the Upper and Lower Great Lakes where Lake Huron flo ...
to supply the Ontario market, and in 1976 to Montreal, Quebec
Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple-pea ...
.
*The Trans Mountain Pipeline System
The Trans Mountain Pipeline System, or simply the Trans Mountain Pipeline, is a pipeline that carries crude and refined oil from Alberta to the coast of British Columbia, Canada. The pipeline is currently owned by the Government of Canada thr ...
was built in 1953 to transport crude oil and refined products from Edmonton to Vancouver
Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...
, BC. It also supplies feedstock to large US oil refineries in the state of Washington
Washington (), officially the State of Washington, is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. Named for George Washington—the first U.S. president—the state was formed from the western part of the Washington ...
. Only crude oil and condensate are shipped to the United States.
*The Norman Wells Pipeline (now owned by Enbridge) was built in 1985 to carry crude oil from Norman Wells, NWT to Zama City
Zama City is a hamlet in northwestern Alberta, Canada within Mackenzie County.
It is located north of Zama Lake along Zama Road, which branches off the Mackenzie Highway (Highway 35) approximately north of High Level.
The hamlet is located in ...
, Alberta, where it connects with the Alberta pipeline network.
*The Express Pipeline was built in 1997 to carry oil from the Alberta pipeline hub at Hardisty, Alberta
Hardisty is a town in Flagstaff County in east-central Alberta, Canada. It is approximately from the Saskatchewan border, near the crossroads of Highway 13 and Highway 881, in the Battle River Valley. Hardisty is mainly known as a pivotal pet ...
to the US states of Montana
Montana () is a state in the Mountain West division of the Western United States. It is bordered by Idaho to the west, North Dakota and South Dakota to the east, Wyoming to the south, and the Canadian provinces of Alberta, British Columbi ...
, Utah
Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to it ...
, Wyoming
Wyoming () is a U.S. state, state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is bordered by Montana to the north and northwest, South Dakota and Nebraska to the east, Idaho to the west, Utah to the south ...
and Colorado
Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of t ...
.
*The Keystone Pipeline
The Keystone Pipeline System is an oil pipeline system in Canada and the United States, commissioned in 2010 and owned by TC Energy and as of 31 March 2020 the Government of Alberta. It runs from the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin in Albert ...
was built in 2011 to carry oil from Hardisty, Alberta to the major US pipeline hub at Cushing, Oklahoma
Cushing ( sac, Koshineki, iow, Amína P^óp^oye Chína, ''meaning: "Soft-seat town"'') is a city in Payne County, Oklahoma, United States. The population was 7,826 at the time of the 2010 census, a decline of 6.5% since 8,371 in 2000. Cushing w ...
, where it connects to pipelines to Texas
Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...
, Louisiana
Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-smallest by area and the 25th most populous of the 50 U.S. states. Louisiana is borde ...
, and many of the Eastern United States
The Eastern United States, commonly referred to as the American East, Eastern America, or simply the East, is the region of the United States to the east of the Mississippi River. In some cases the term may refer to a smaller area or the East C ...
.
Oil refineries
There are four oil refineries in Alberta with a combined capacity of over of crude oil. Most of these are located on what is known as Refinery Row in Strathcona County
Strathcona County is a specialized municipality in the Edmonton Metropolitan Region within Alberta, Canada between Edmonton and Elk Island National Park. It forms part of Census Division No. 11.
Strathcona County is both urban and rural in n ...
near Edmonton, Alberta
Edmonton ( ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Alberta. Edmonton is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Alberta's central region. The city anchor ...
, which supplies products to most of Western Canada. In addition to refined products such as gasoline and diesel fuel, the refineries and upgraders also produce off-gases, which are used as feedstock by nearby petrochemical plants.
* The Suncor Energy
Suncor Energy (french: Suncor Énergie) is a Canadian integrated energy company based in Calgary, Alberta. It specializes in production of synthetic crude from oil sands. In the 2020 Forbes Global 2000, Suncor Energy was ranked as the 48th-lar ...
(Petro Canada
Petro-Canada is a retail and wholesale marketing brand subsidiary of Suncor Energy. Until 1991, it was a federal Crown corporation (a state-owned enterprise). In August 2009, Petro-Canada merged with Suncor Energy, with Suncor shareholders rece ...
) refinery near Edmonton has a capacity of of crude oil.
* The Imperial Oil
Imperial Oil Limited (French: ''Compagnie Pétrolière Impériale Ltée'') is a Canadian petroleum company. It is Canada's second-biggest integrated oil company. It is majority owned by American oil company ExxonMobil with around 69.6 percent ...
Strathcona Refinery
The Strathcona Refinery is an oil refinery located in Strathcona County adjacent to Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, owned by Imperial Oil. The refinery provides oil products, primarily gasoline, aviation fuel, diesel, lubricating oils, petroleum wax ...
near Edmonton has a capacity of .
* The Shell Canada
Shell Canada Limited (french: Shell Canada Limitée) is the principal Canadian subsidiary of British energy major Shell plc and one of Canada's largest integrated oil companies. Exploration and production of oil, natural gas and sulphur is a majo ...
Scotford Refinery near Edmonton has a capacity of . It is located adjacent to the Shell Scotford Upgrader
The Shell Scotford Upgrader is an oilsand upgrader, a facility which processes crude bitumen (extra-heavy crude oil) from oil sands into a wide range of synthetic crude oils. The upgrader is owned by Athabasca Oil Sands Project (AOSP), a joint vent ...
, which provides it with feedstock.
* The Husky Lloydminster Refinery
The Husky Lloydminster Refinery is an asphalt refinery located in the city of Lloydminster, Alberta, Canada owned by Husky Energy. The refinery provides oil products, primarily 30 different grades of asphalt (2120 m³/day ), as well as light dist ...
at Lloydminster
Lloydminster is a city in Canada which has the unusual geographic distinction of straddling the provincial border between Alberta and Saskatchewan. The city is incorporated by both provinces as a single city with a single municipal administrati ...
, in eastern Alberta has a capacity of . It is located across the provincial border from the Husky Lloydminster Heavy Oil Upgrader at Lloydminster, Saskatchewan, which provides it with feedstock. (Lloydminster is not a twin city but is chartered by both provinces as a single city that crosses the border.)
Other oil-related activities
Two of the largest producers of petrochemicals in North America
North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...
are located in central and north central Alberta. In both Red Deer
The red deer (''Cervus elaphus'') is one of the largest deer species. A male red deer is called a stag or hart, and a female is called a hind. The red deer inhabits most of Europe, the Caucasus Mountains region, Anatolia, Iran, and parts of wes ...
and Edmonton
Edmonton ( ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Alberta. Edmonton is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Alberta's central region. The city ancho ...
, world class polyethylene
Polyethylene or polythene (abbreviated PE; IUPAC name polyethene or poly(methylene)) is the most commonly produced plastic. It is a polymer, primarily used for packaging ( plastic bags, plastic films, geomembranes and containers including bo ...
and vinyl
Vinyl may refer to:
Chemistry
* Polyvinyl chloride (PVC), a particular vinyl polymer
* Vinyl cation, a type of carbocation
* Vinyl group, a broad class of organic molecules in chemistry
* Vinyl polymer, a group of polymers derived from vinyl m ...
manufacturers produce products shipped all over the world, and Edmonton's oil refineries
An oil refinery or petroleum refinery is an industrial process plant where petroleum (crude oil) is transformed and refined into useful products such as gasoline (petrol), diesel fuel, asphalt base, fuel oils, heating oil, kerosene, liquefie ...
provide the raw materials for a large petrochemical industry
The petrochemical industry is concerned with the production and trade of petrochemicals. A major part is constituted by the plastics (polymer) industry. It directly interfaces with the petroleum industry, especially the downstream sector.
Compan ...
to the east of Edmonton. There are hundreds of small companies in Alberta dedicated to providing various services to this industry—from drilling to well maintenance, pipeline
Pipeline may refer to:
Electronics, computers and computing
* Pipeline (computing), a chain of data-processing stages or a CPU optimization found on
** Instruction pipelining, a technique for implementing instruction-level parallelism within a s ...
maintenance to seismic
Seismology (; from Ancient Greek σεισμός (''seismós'') meaning "earthquake" and -λογία (''-logía'') meaning "study of") is the scientific study of earthquakes and the propagation of elastic waves through the Earth or through other ...
exploration.
While Edmonton
Edmonton ( ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Alberta. Edmonton is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Alberta's central region. The city ancho ...
(population 972,223 thousand in 2019) is the provincial capital and is considered the pipeline, manufacturing, chemical processing, research and refining centre of the Canadian oil industry, its rival city 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 ...
(population 1.26 million) is the main oil company head office and financial centre, with more than 960 senior and junior oil company offices. Calgary also has regional offices of all six major Canadian banks, some 4,300 petroleum, energy and related service companies, and 1,300 financial service companies, helping make it the second largest head office city in Canada after Toronto.
*Oil and gas activity is regulated by the Alberta Energy Regulator (AER) (Formerly the Alberta Energy Resources Conservation Board (ERCB)and the Energy and Utility Board (EUB)).
Saskatchewan
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 ...
is Canada's second-largest oil-producing province after Alberta, producing about 13.5% of Canada's petroleum in 2015. This included light crude oil Light crude oil is liquid petroleum that has a low density and flows freely at room temperature. It has a low viscosity, low specific gravity and high API gravity due to the presence of a high proportion of light hydrocarbon fractions. It generally ...
, 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 ...
, and natural-gas condensate
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 ...
. Most of its production is heavy oil but, unlike Alberta, none of Saskatchewan's heavy oil deposits are officially classified as bituminous sands
Oil sands, tar sands, crude bitumen, or bituminous sands, are a type of unconventional petroleum deposit. Oil sands are either loose sands or partially consolidated sandstone containing a naturally occurring mixture of sand, clay, and wate ...
. In 2015 Saskatchewan produced an average of oil and equivalent production.
Oil fields
All of Saskatchewan's oil is produced from the vast 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 ...
, about 25% of which underlies the province. Lying toward the shallower eastern end of the later the sedimentary basin, Saskatchewan tends to produce more oil and less natural gas than other parts. It has four major oil-producing regions:
* The Lloydminster
Lloydminster is a city in Canada which has the unusual geographic distinction of straddling the provincial border between Alberta and Saskatchewan. The city is incorporated by both provinces as a single city with a single municipal administrati ...
area in west-central Saskatchewan has very large reserves of very 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 ...
. (The oil field crosses the Alberta/Saskatchewan border, as do the production facilities.)
* The Kindersley
Kindersley is a town surrounded by the Rural Municipality of Kindersley No. 290 in west-central Saskatchewan, Canada. It is located along Highway 7, a primary highway linking Calgary, Alberta and Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. At a population of 4,597 ...
area in south-central Saskatchewan produces light crude oil Light crude oil is liquid petroleum that has a low density and flows freely at room temperature. It has a low viscosity, low specific gravity and high API gravity due to the presence of a high proportion of light hydrocarbon fractions. It generally ...
using hydraulic fracturing
Fracking (also known as hydraulic fracturing, hydrofracturing, or hydrofracking) is a well stimulation technique involving the fracturing of bedrock formations by a pressurized liquid. The process involves the high-pressure injection of "frack ...
from Saskatchewan's portion of the Bakken Formation
The Bakken Formation () is a rock unit from the Late Devonian to Early Mississippian age occupying about of the subsurface of the Williston Basin, underlying parts of Montana, North Dakota, Saskatchewan and Manitoba. The formation was initi ...
, which also produces most of North Dakota
North Dakota () is a U.S. state in the Upper Midwest, named after the Native Americans in the United States, indigenous Dakota people, Dakota Sioux. North Dakota is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Saskatchewan and Manitoba to the north a ...
's oil.
* The Swift Current
Swift Current is the fifth largest city in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan. It is situated along the Trans Canada Highway west of Moose Jaw, and east of Medicine Hat, Alberta. Swift Current grew 6.8% between 2011 and 2016, ending up at ...
area in southwest Saskatchewan produces mostly conventional oil.
* The Weyburn
Weyburn is the eleventh-largest city in Saskatchewan, Canada. The city has a population of 10,870. It is on the Souris River southeast of the provincial capital of Regina, Saskatchewan, Regina and is north from the North Dakota border in the ...
area in southeast Saskatchewan produces oil using carbon dioxide flooding Carbon dioxide (CO2) flooding is a process whereby carbon dioxide is injected into oil reservoirs in order to increase output when extracting oil, especially in reservoirs where production rates have declined over time. The process was first attemp ...
in the Weyburn-Midale Carbon Dioxide Project
The Weyburn-Midale Carbon Dioxide Project (or IEA GHG Weyburn-Midale Monitoring and Storage Project) is, as of 2008, the world's largest carbon capture and storage project.Allan Casey, ''Carbon Cemetery'', Canadian Geographic Magazine, Jan/Feb 2 ...
, the world's largest carbon capture and storage
Carbon capture and storage (CCS) or carbon capture and sequestration is the process of capturing carbon dioxide (CO2) before it enters the atmosphere, transporting it, and storing it (carbon sequestration) for centuries or millennia. Usually th ...
project.
Oil upgraders
There are two heavy oil upgraders in Saskatchewan.
* The NewGrade Energy Upgrader, part of the CCRL Refinery Complex
The Co-op Refinery Complex (CRC), formerly known as Consumers’ Co-operative Refineries Limited (CCRL), is an oil refinery spread over located in the city of Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada, owned and operated '' ource needed' by Consumers Co-opera ...
in Regina, processes of heavy oil from the Lloydminster area into synthetic crude oil
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 Husky Energy
Husky Energy Inc. is a company engaged in hydrocarbon exploration, headquartered in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. It operates in Western and Atlantic Canada, the United States and the Asia Pacific region, with upstream and downstream business segm ...
Bi-Provincial Upgrader on the Saskatchewan side of Lloydminster
Lloydminster is a city in Canada which has the unusual geographic distinction of straddling the provincial border between Alberta and Saskatchewan. The city is incorporated by both provinces as a single city with a single municipal administrati ...
processes of heavy oil from Alberta and Saskatchewan to lighter crude oil. In addition to selling synthetic crude oil to other refineries, it supplies feedstock to the Husky Lloydminster Refinery
The Husky Lloydminster Refinery is an asphalt refinery located in the city of Lloydminster, Alberta, Canada owned by Husky Energy. The refinery provides oil products, primarily 30 different grades of asphalt (2120 m³/day ), as well as light dist ...
on the Alberta side of the border. (Lloydminster is not twin cities
Twin cities are a special case of two neighboring cities or urban centres that grow into a single conurbation – or narrowly separated urban areas – over time. There are no formal criteria, but twin cities are generally comparable in statu ...
but is a single bi-provincial city that straddles the Alberta/Saskatchewan border.)
Oil refineries
The majority of the province's refining capacity is in a single complex in the provincial capital of Regina:
* The CCRL Refinery Complex
The Co-op Refinery Complex (CRC), formerly known as Consumers’ Co-operative Refineries Limited (CCRL), is an oil refinery spread over located in the city of Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada, owned and operated '' ource needed' by Consumers Co-opera ...
operated by Federated Co-operatives
Federated Co-operatives Limited (FCL), operating as Co-op, is a co-operative federation providing procurement and distribution to member co-operatives in Western Canada. It was established in 1944 after a series of amalgamations of smaller coop ...
in Regina processes into conventional refinery products. It receives much of its feedstock from the NewGrade upgrader.
* Moose Jaw Asphalt Inc. operates a asphalt plant in Moose Jaw.
Oil and gas activity is regulated by the Saskatchewan Industry and Resources (SIR).
Newfoundland and Labrador
Newfoundland and Labrador
Newfoundland and Labrador (; french: Terre-Neuve-et-Labrador; frequently abbreviated as NL) is the easternmost province of Canada, in the country's Atlantic region. The province comprises the island of Newfoundland and the continental region ...
is Canada's third largest oil producing province, producing about 4.4% of Canada's petroleum in 2015. This consisted almost exclusively of light crude oil Light crude oil is liquid petroleum that has a low density and flows freely at room temperature. It has a low viscosity, low specific gravity and high API gravity due to the presence of a high proportion of light hydrocarbon fractions. It generally ...
produced by offshore oil facilities on the Grand Banks of Newfoundland
The Grand Banks of Newfoundland are a series of underwater plateaus south-east of the island of Newfoundland on the North American continental shelf. The Grand Banks are one of the world's richest fishing grounds, supporting Atlantic cod, swordf ...
. In 2015 these offshore fields produced an average of of light crude oil.
Oil fields
*The Hibernia oil field
Hibernia is an oil field in the North Atlantic Ocean, approximately east-southeast of St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada, in 80 m of water.Hurley, T.J., Kreisa, R.D., Taylor, G.G., and Yates, W.R.L., 1992, The Reservoir Geology and Geophysics of ...
is located approximately east-southeast of St. John's, Newfoundland
St. John's is the capital and largest city of the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador, located on the eastern tip of the Avalon Peninsula on the island of Newfoundland.
The city spans and is the easternmost city in North America ...
. The field was discovered in 1979 and has been producing since 1997. The Hibernia Gravity Base Structure
The Hibernia Gravity Base Structure is an offshore oil platform on the Hibernia oilfield southeast of St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada.
A 600-kilotonne gravity base structure (GBS) built after the ''Ocean Ranger'' disaster, it sits in of wate ...
is the world's largest oil platform by weight since it has to withstand collisions by icebergs.
*The Terra Nova oil field
Terra Nova is an oil field development project based off the coast of Newfoundland (island), Newfoundland, discovered in 1984 by Petro-Canada. Terra Nova is the first harsh environment development in North America to use a Floating Production Sto ...
is located off the east coast of Newfoundland. The field was discovered in 1984 and has been producing since 2002. It uses a Floating Production Storage and Offloading
A floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) unit is a floating vessel used by the offshore oil and gas industry for the production and processing of hydrocarbons, and for the storage of oil. An FPSO vessel is designed to receive h ...
(FPSO) vessel rather than a fixed platform to produce oil.
*The White Rose oil field
White Rose is an oil field development project off the coast of Newfoundland (island), Newfoundland. Husky Energy is the operator and 72.5 per cent interest holder in the White Rose oil fields.
Discovered in 1984, the White Rose offshore oil f ...
is located off the east coast of Newfoundland. The field was discovered in 1984 and has been producing since 2005. It uses a FPSO vessel to produce oil.
Oil refinery
Newfoundland has one oil refinery, the Come By Chance Refinery
Come By Chance Refinery was a crude oil refinery operated by North Atlantic Refining in Come By Chance, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. It has a refining capacity of . The plant is undergoing conversion to a biofuel operation.
History
The ref ...
, which has a capacity of . The refinery was built before the discovery of oil offshore Newfoundland to process cheap imported oil and sell the products mainly in the United States. Unfortunately the startup of the refinery in 1973 coincided with the 1973 oil crisis
The 1973 oil crisis or first oil crisis began in October 1973 when the members of the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (OAPEC), led by Saudi Arabia, proclaimed an oil embargo. The embargo was targeted at nations that had supp ...
which quadrupled the price of the refinery's crude oil supply. This and technical problems caused the refinery to go bankrupt in 1976. It was restarted under new owners in 1986 and has gone through a series of owners until now, when it is operated by North Atlantic Refining Limited. However, despite the fact that major oil fields were subsequently discovered offshore of Newfoundland, the refinery was not designed to process the type of oil they produced, and it did not process any Newfoundland oil at all until 2014. Until then all of Newfoundland's production went to refineries in the United States and elsewhere in Canada, while the refinery imported all its oil from other countries.
British Columbia
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, ...
produced an average of oil and equivalent in 2015, or about 1.4% of Canada's petroleum. About 38% of this liquids production was light crude oil Light crude oil is liquid petroleum that has a low density and flows freely at room temperature. It has a low viscosity, low specific gravity and high API gravity due to the presence of a high proportion of light hydrocarbon fractions. It generally ...
, but most of it (62%) was natural-gas condensate
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 ...
.
British Columbia's oil fields lie at the gas-prone northwest end of 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 ...
, and its oil industry is secondary to the larger natural gas industry. Drilling for gas and oil takes place in Peace Country
The Peace River Country (or Peace Country; french: Région de la Rivière-de-la-paix) is an aspen parkland region centring on the Peace River in Canada. It extends from northwestern Alberta to the Rocky Mountains in northeastern British Columbia, ...
of north-eastern 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, ...
, around Fort Nelson Fort Nelson may refer to:
Canada
*Fort Nelson, British Columbia, a town
*Fort Nelson River, British Columbia
* Fort Nelson (Manitoba) (1670–1713), an early fur trading post at the mouth of the Nelson River and the first headquarters of the Hudson ...
( Greater Sierra oil field), Fort St. John (Pink Mountain, Ring Border) and Dawson Creek
Dawson Creek is a city in northeastern British Columbia, Canada. The municipality of had a population of 12,978 in 2016. Dawson Creek derives its name from the creek of the same name that runs through the community. The creek was named after ...
Oil and gas activity in BC is regulated by the Oil and Gas Commission (OGC).
Oil refineries
BC has only two remaining oil refineries.
* The Husky Energy
Husky Energy Inc. is a company engaged in hydrocarbon exploration, headquartered in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. It operates in Western and Atlantic Canada, the United States and the Asia Pacific region, with upstream and downstream business segm ...
Prince George Refinery in Prince George, BC
Prince George is the largest city in northern British Columbia, Canada, with a population of 74,004 in the metropolitan area. It is often called the province's "northern capital" or sometimes the "spruce capital" because it is the hub city for ...
processes of light oil produced locally in northeastern BC.
* The Chevron Canada Burnaby Refinery
The Burnaby Refinery is an oil refinery located in the city of Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada owned by Parkland Fuel Corp. The facility refines crude and synthetic oil into gasoline, diesel, jet fuels, asphalts, heating fuels, heavy fuel ...
in the Vancouver suburb of Burnaby
Burnaby is a city in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia, Canada. Located in the centre of the Burrard Peninsula, it neighbours the City of Vancouver to the west, the District of North Vancouver across the confluence of the Burrard I ...
processes of light oil received from Alberta via the Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain Pipeline System
The Trans Mountain Pipeline System, or simply the Trans Mountain Pipeline, is a pipeline that carries crude and refined oil from Alberta to the coast of British Columbia, Canada. The pipeline is currently owned by the Government of Canada thr ...
.
There once were four oil refineries in the Vancouver area, but Imperial Oil
Imperial Oil Limited (French: ''Compagnie Pétrolière Impériale Ltée'') is a Canadian petroleum company. It is Canada's second-biggest integrated oil company. It is majority owned by American oil company ExxonMobil with around 69.6 percent ...
, Shell Canada
Shell Canada Limited (french: Shell Canada Limitée) is the principal Canadian subsidiary of British energy major Shell plc and one of Canada's largest integrated oil companies. Exploration and production of oil, natural gas and sulphur is a majo ...
, and Petro Canada
Petro-Canada is a retail and wholesale marketing brand subsidiary of Suncor Energy. Until 1991, it was a federal Crown corporation (a state-owned enterprise). In August 2009, Petro-Canada merged with Suncor Energy, with Suncor shareholders rece ...
converted their refineries to product terminals in the 1990s and now supply the BC market from their large refineries near Edmonton, Alberta
Edmonton ( ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Alberta. Edmonton is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Alberta's central region. The city anchor ...
, which are closer to Canada's oil sands and largest oil fields. Chevron's refinery is at risk of closure due to difficulties in getting oil supply from Alberta via the capacity-limited Trans Mountain Pipeline, its only pipeline link to the rest of Canada.
In June 2016 Chevron put its oil refinery in Burnaby, BC up for sale, along with its fuel distribution network in British Columbia and Alberta. “The company acknowledges these are challenging times and we need to be open to changing market conditions and opportunities as they arise,” a company representative said. The refinery, which started production in 1935, has 430 employees. Chevron's offer to sell follows Imperial Oil's sale of 497 Esso gas stations in B.C. and Alberta. It is unclear what will happen if Chevron fails to sell its BC assets.
Manitoba
Manitoba
Manitoba ( ) is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada at the Centre of Canada, longitudinal centre of the country. It is Canada's Population of Canada by province and territory, fifth-most populous province, with a population o ...
produced an average of of light crude oil Light crude oil is liquid petroleum that has a low density and flows freely at room temperature. It has a low viscosity, low specific gravity and high API gravity due to the presence of a high proportion of light hydrocarbon fractions. It generally ...
in 2015, or about 1.2% of Canada's petroleum production.
Manitoba's oil production is in southwest Manitoba along the northeast flank of the Williston Basin
The Williston Basin is a large intracratonic sedimentary basin in eastern Montana, western North Dakota, South Dakota, southern Saskatchewan, and south-western Manitoba that is known for its rich deposits of petroleum and potash. The basin is a ...
, a large geological structural basin
A structural basin is a large-scale structural formation of rock strata formed by tectonic warping of previously flat-lying strata. They are geological depressions, the inverse of domes. Elongated structural basins are also known as synclines. ...
which also underlies parts of southern Saskatchewan, North Dakota, South Dakota and Montana. Unlike in Saskatchewan, very little of Manitoba's oil is 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 ...
.
*A few rigs drilling for oil in South western Manitoba
There are no oil refineries in Manitoba.
Northern Canada (onshore)
The Northwest Territories
The Northwest Territories (abbreviated ''NT'' or ''NWT''; french: Territoires du Nord-Ouest, formerly ''North-Western Territory'' and ''North-West Territories'' and namely shortened as ''Northwest Territory'') is a federal territory of Canada. ...
produced an average of of light crude oil Light crude oil is liquid petroleum that has a low density and flows freely at room temperature. It has a low viscosity, low specific gravity and high API gravity due to the presence of a high proportion of light hydrocarbon fractions. It generally ...
in 2015, or about 0.2% of Canada's petroleum production. There is an historic large oil field at Norman Wells
Norman Wells ( Slavey language: ''Tłegǫ́hłı̨'' "where there is oil") is a town located in the Sahtu Region, Northwest Territories, Canada, settled about 140 km (87 mi) south of the Arctic Circle. The town, which hosts the Sahtu Regional o ...
, which has produced most of its oil since it started producing 1937, and is continuing to produce at low rates. There used to be an oil refinery at Norman Wells, but it was closed in 1996 and all of the oil is now pipelined out to refineries in Alberta.
*Drilling for tight oil
Tight oil (also known as shale oil, shale-hosted oil or light tight oil, abbreviated LTO) is light crude oil contained in unconventional petroleum-bearing formations of low permeability, often shale or tight sandstone.
Economic production from ...
in the Canol shale play The Canol shale play is the name for a region of Canada's Northwest Territories that is being investigated as a potential source of tight oil (also referred to as shale oil).
The region centers around the known reserves of conventionally exploitable ...
near Norman Wells by Husky Energy
Husky Energy Inc. is a company engaged in hydrocarbon exploration, headquartered in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. It operates in Western and Atlantic Canada, the United States and the Asia Pacific region, with upstream and downstream business segm ...
and others.
Northern Canada (offshore)
Extensive drilling was done in the Canadian Arctic
Northern Canada, colloquially the North or the Territories, is the vast northernmost region of Canada variously defined by geography and politics. Politically, the term refers to the three territories of Canada: Yukon, Northwest Territories and N ...
during the 1970s and 1980s by such companies as Panarctic Oils Ltd.
Panarctic Oils Limited was formed in 1966 as a result of the Canadian government's eagerness to encourage exploration of the Canadian Arctic islands and to assert Canada, Canadian sovereignty in the region. That company consolidated the interests ...
, Petro Canada
Petro-Canada is a retail and wholesale marketing brand subsidiary of Suncor Energy. Until 1991, it was a federal Crown corporation (a state-owned enterprise). In August 2009, Petro-Canada merged with Suncor Energy, with Suncor shareholders rece ...
and Dome Petroleum
Dome Petroleum Limited was a Calgary-based oil and gas company. Founded in 1950 as a subsidiary of the Toronto company Dome Mines Limited, Dome was built by Jack Gallagher, who remained with the company until 1983. In 1988 Dome was purchased by ...
. After 176 wells were drilled at a cost of billions of dollars, a modest of oil were found. None of the finds were big enough to pay for the multibillion-dollar production and transportation schemes required to bring the oil out, so all the wells which had been drilled were plugged and abandoned. In addition, after the Deepwater Horizon explosion
The ''Deepwater Horizon'' drilling rig explosion was an April 20, 2010 explosion and subsequent fire on the ''Deepwater Horizon'' Semi-submersible platform, semi-submersible mobile offshore drilling unit, which was owned and operated by Tran ...
in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010, new rules were introduced which discouraged companies from drilling in the Canadian Arctic offshore.
*There is currently no offshore oil production in northern Canada
*There is currently no offshore drilling in northern Canada
Eastern Canada (onshore)
Ontario
Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...
produced an average of of light crude oil Light crude oil is liquid petroleum that has a low density and flows freely at room temperature. It has a low viscosity, low specific gravity and high API gravity due to the presence of a high proportion of light hydrocarbon fractions. It generally ...
in 2015, or less than 0.03% of Canada's petroleum production. Onshore production in other provinces east of Ontario was even more insignificant.
Oil fields
Ontario was the centre of the Canadian oil industry in the 19th century. It had the oldest commercial oil well in North America (dug by hand in 1858 at Oil Springs, Ontario
Oil Springs is a village in Lambton County, Ontario, Canada, located along Former Provincial Highway 21 south of Oil City. The village, an enclave within Enniskillen Township, is the site of North America's first commercial oil well. It is home ...
, a year before the Drake Well
The Drake Well is a oil well in Cherrytree Township, Venango County in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania, the success of which sparked the first oil boom in the United States. The well is the centerpiece of the Drake Well Museum located south of ...
was drilled in Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...
), and having the oldest producing oil field in North America (producing crude oil continuously since 1861). However, it reached its production peak and started to decline more than 100 years ago.
*Sporadic drilling in southern Ontario
Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...
*Sporadic drilling in western Newfoundland
Newfoundland and Labrador (; french: Terre-Neuve-et-Labrador; frequently abbreviated as NL) is the easternmost province of Canada, in the country's Atlantic region. The province comprises the island of Newfoundland and the continental region ...
*Sporadic drilling in northern Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia ( ; ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. Nova Scotia is Latin for "New Scotland".
Most of the population are native Eng ...
and western Cape Breton Island
Cape Breton Island (french: link=no, île du Cap-Breton, formerly '; gd, Ceap Breatainn or '; mic, Unamaꞌki) is an island on the Atlantic coast of North America and part of the province of Nova Scotia, Canada.
The island accounts for 18. ...
*Sporadic drilling in northern and eastern Prince Edward Island
Prince Edward Island (PEI; ) is one of the thirteen Provinces and territories of Canada, provinces and territories of Canada. It is the smallest province in terms of land area and population, but the most densely populated. The island has seve ...
Oil pipelines
Canada had one of the world’s first oil pipelines in 1862 when a pipeline was built to deliver oil from Petrolia, Ontario
Petrolia is a town in southwestern Ontario, Canada. It is part of Lambton County and is surrounded by Enniskillen Township. It is billed as "Canada's Victorian Oil Town" and is often credited with starting the oil industry in North America, a ...
to refineries at Sarnia, Ontario
Sarnia is a city in Lambton County, Ontario, Canada. It had a 2021 population of 72,047, and is the largest city on Lake Huron. Sarnia is located on the eastern bank of the junction between the Upper and Lower Great Lakes where Lake Huron flo ...
. However, Ontario's oil fields began to decline toward the end of the 19th century, and by World War II Canada was importing 90% of its oil. By 1947, only three Canadian crude oil pipelines existed. One was built to handle only Alberta production. A second moved imported crude from coastal Maine
Maine () is a state in the New England and Northeastern regions of the United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Quebec to the northeast and north ...
to Montreal
Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-most populous city in Canada and List of towns in Quebec, most populous city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian ...
, while the third brought American oil into Ontario. However, in 1947 the first big oil discovery was made in Alberta when Leduc No. 1
Leduc No. 1 was a major crude oil discovery made near Leduc, Alberta, Canada on February 13, 1947. It provided the geological key to Alberta's most prolific conventional oil reserves and resulted in a boom in petroleum exploration and developmen ...
struck oil in a suburb of Edmonton, Alberta
Edmonton ( ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Alberta. Edmonton is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Alberta's central region. The city anchor ...
. It was followed by many even larger discoveries in Alberta, so pipelines were built to take the newly discovered oil to refineries in the American Midwest
The Midwestern United States, also referred to as the Midwest or the American Midwest, is one of four census regions of the United States Census Bureau (also known as "Region 2"). It occupies the northern central part of the United States. I ...
and from there to refineries in Ontario.
*The Interprovincial Pipeline (now known as Enbridge
Enbridge Inc. is a multinational pipeline and energy company headquartered in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Enbridge owns and operates pipelines throughout Canada and the United States, transporting crude oil, natural gas, and natural gas liquids. ...
) was built in 1950 to take Alberta oil to US refineries. In 1953 it was extended through the US to Sarnia, Ontario
Sarnia is a city in Lambton County, Ontario, Canada. It had a 2021 population of 72,047, and is the largest city on Lake Huron. Sarnia is located on the eastern bank of the junction between the Upper and Lower Great Lakes where Lake Huron flo ...
and in 1956 to Toronto
Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...
. This made it the longest crude oil pipeline in the world.
*The Interprovincial Pipeline was extended to Montreal
Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-most populous city in Canada and List of towns in Quebec, most populous city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian ...
in 1976 after the 1973 oil crisis
The 1973 oil crisis or first oil crisis began in October 1973 when the members of the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (OAPEC), led by Saudi Arabia, proclaimed an oil embargo. The embargo was targeted at nations that had supp ...
interrupted foreign oil supplies to Eastern Canada.
*The Portland–Montreal Pipe Line was built during World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
to bring imported oil from the marine terminal at South Portland, Maine
South Portland is a city in Cumberland County, Maine, United States, and is the fourth-largest city in the state, incorporated in 1898. At the 2020 census, the city population was 26,498. Known for its working waterfront, South Portland is sit ...
through the United States to Montreal
Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-most populous city in Canada and List of towns in Quebec, most populous city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian ...
. As of 2016, the pipeline is no longer operational since the only remaining Montreal Refinery
The Montreal Refinery is an oil refinery located in the city of Montreal inside the Rivière-des-Prairies–Pointe-aux-Trembles borough. The refinery is not far from the Montreal East Refinery. This refinery is the largest Suncor Energy refinery. ...
, is now owned by Suncor Energy
Suncor Energy (french: Suncor Énergie) is a Canadian integrated energy company based in Calgary, Alberta. It specializes in production of synthetic crude from oil sands. In the 2020 Forbes Global 2000, Suncor Energy was ranked as the 48th-lar ...
, which produces enough oil to meet its needs from the Canadian oil sands.
Oil refineries
Despite having very little oil production, Eastern Canada has a large number of oil refineries. The ones in Ontario were built close to the historic oil fields of southern Ontario; the ones in provinces to the east were built to process oil imported from other countries. After Leduc No. 1
Leduc No. 1 was a major crude oil discovery made near Leduc, Alberta, Canada on February 13, 1947. It provided the geological key to Alberta's most prolific conventional oil reserves and resulted in a boom in petroleum exploration and developmen ...
was discovered in 1947, the much larger oil fields in Alberta began to supply Ontario refineries. After the 1973 oil crisis
The 1973 oil crisis or first oil crisis began in October 1973 when the members of the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (OAPEC), led by Saudi Arabia, proclaimed an oil embargo. The embargo was targeted at nations that had supp ...
drastically increased the price of imported oil, the economics of refineries became unfavorable, and many of them closed. In particular, Montreal, which had six oil refineries in 1973, now has only one.
Ontario
Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...
* Nanticoke Refinery
The Nanticoke Refinery is an oil refinery in Nanticoke, Ontario, Canada. It is owned and operated by Imperial Oil, which is majority owned by ExxonMobil. The refuels primarily go to '' Esso''-branded gas stations in Canada and to other oil co ...
- (Imperial Oil
Imperial Oil Limited (French: ''Compagnie Pétrolière Impériale Ltée'') is a Canadian petroleum company. It is Canada's second-biggest integrated oil company. It is majority owned by American oil company ExxonMobil with around 69.6 percent ...
),
* Sarnia
Sarnia is a city in Lambton County, Ontario, Canada. It had a 2021 population of 72,047, and is the largest city on Lake Huron. Sarnia is located on the eastern bank of the junction between the Upper and Lower Great Lakes where Lake Huron fl ...
- (Imperial Oil
Imperial Oil Limited (French: ''Compagnie Pétrolière Impériale Ltée'') is a Canadian petroleum company. It is Canada's second-biggest integrated oil company. It is majority owned by American oil company ExxonMobil with around 69.6 percent ...
),
* Sarnia
Sarnia is a city in Lambton County, Ontario, Canada. It had a 2021 population of 72,047, and is the largest city on Lake Huron. Sarnia is located on the eastern bank of the junction between the Upper and Lower Great Lakes where Lake Huron fl ...
- (Suncor Energy
Suncor Energy (french: Suncor Énergie) is a Canadian integrated energy company based in Calgary, Alberta. It specializes in production of synthetic crude from oil sands. In the 2020 Forbes Global 2000, Suncor Energy was ranked as the 48th-lar ...
),
* Corunna - (Shell Canada
Shell Canada Limited (french: Shell Canada Limitée) is the principal Canadian subsidiary of British energy major Shell plc and one of Canada's largest integrated oil companies. Exploration and production of oil, natural gas and sulphur is a majo ...
),
* Mississauga
Mississauga ( ), historically known as Toronto Township, is a city in the Canadian province of Ontario. It is situated on the shores of Lake Ontario in the Regional Municipality of Peel, adjoining the western border of Toronto. With a popul ...
- (Suncor Energy
Suncor Energy (french: Suncor Énergie) is a Canadian integrated energy company based in Calgary, Alberta. It specializes in production of synthetic crude from oil sands. In the 2020 Forbes Global 2000, Suncor Energy was ranked as the 48th-lar ...
),
Quebec
Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...
* Montreal Refinery
The Montreal Refinery is an oil refinery located in the city of Montreal inside the Rivière-des-Prairies–Pointe-aux-Trembles borough. The refinery is not far from the Montreal East Refinery. This refinery is the largest Suncor Energy refinery. ...
- (Suncor Energy
Suncor Energy (french: Suncor Énergie) is a Canadian integrated energy company based in Calgary, Alberta. It specializes in production of synthetic crude from oil sands. In the 2020 Forbes Global 2000, Suncor Energy was ranked as the 48th-lar ...
), .
* Lévis - (Valero Energy Corporation
Valero Energy Corporation is a Fortune 500 international manufacturer and marketer of transportation fuels, other petrochemical products, and power. It is headquartered in San Antonio, Texas, United States. Throughout the United States and Can ...
)),
New Brunswick
New Brunswick (french: Nouveau-Brunswick, , locally ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. It is the only province with both English and ...
* Irving Oil Refinery
The Irving Oil Refinery is a Canadian oil refinery located in Saint John, New Brunswick. It is currently the largest oil refinery in Canada, capable of producing more than of refined products per day. Over 80 per cent of the production is exported ...
, Saint John (Irving Oil
Irving Oil Ltd. is a Canadian gasoline, oil, and natural gas producing and exporting company. Considered part of the Irving Group of Companies, it was founded by entrepreneur Kenneth "K.C." Irving and is privately owned by his son, Arthur, and h ...
),
Newfoundland and Labrador
Newfoundland and Labrador (; french: Terre-Neuve-et-Labrador; frequently abbreviated as NL) is the easternmost province of Canada, in the country's Atlantic region. The province comprises the island of Newfoundland and the continental region ...
* North Atlantic Refinery, Come By Chance - (North Atlantic Refining
North Atlantic Refining Ltd. is a petroleum company based in Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada.
History
In August 1994, the Vitol Group purchased the Come By Chance Refinery from Newfoundland Processing Ltd. and the operating company North Atl ...
),
Eastern Canada (offshore)
The province of Newfoundland and Labrador
Newfoundland and Labrador (; french: Terre-Neuve-et-Labrador; frequently abbreviated as NL) is the easternmost province of Canada, in the country's Atlantic region. The province comprises the island of Newfoundland and the continental region ...
is Canada's third largest oil producer with of light crude oil Light crude oil is liquid petroleum that has a low density and flows freely at room temperature. It has a low viscosity, low specific gravity and high API gravity due to the presence of a high proportion of light hydrocarbon fractions. It generally ...
from its Grand Banks
The Grand Banks of Newfoundland are a series of underwater plateaus south-east of the island of Newfoundland on the North American continental shelf. The Grand Banks are one of the world's richest fishing grounds, supporting Atlantic cod, swordf ...
offshore oil fields in 2015, about 4.4% of Canada's petroleum. See the Newfoundland and Labrador section above for details. Most of the other offshore production was in the province of Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia ( ; ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. Nova Scotia is Latin for "New Scotland".
Most of the population are native Eng ...
, which produced of natural gas condensate
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 ...
from its Sable Island
Sable Island (french: île de Sable, literally "island of sand") is a small Canadian island situated southeast of Halifax, Nova Scotia, and about southeast of the closest point of mainland Nova Scotia in the North Atlantic Ocean. The island i ...
offshore natural gas fields in 2015, or about 0.07% of Canada's petroleum.
*Offshore
Offshore may refer to:
Science and technology
* Offshore (hydrocarbons)
* Offshore construction, construction out at sea
* Offshore drilling, discovery and development of oil and gas resources which lie underwater through drilling a well
* Off ...
oil drilling and production at Hibernia
''Hibernia'' () is the Classical Latin name for Ireland. The name ''Hibernia'' was taken from Greek geographical accounts. During his exploration of northwest Europe (c. 320 BC), Pytheas of Massalia called the island ''Iérnē'' (written ). ...
, Terra Nova, and White Rose
The White Rose (german: Weiße Rose, ) was a Nonviolence, non-violent, intellectual German resistance to Nazism, resistance group in Nazi Germany which was led by five students (and one professor) at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, ...
fields off the coast of Newfoundland
Newfoundland and Labrador (; french: Terre-Neuve-et-Labrador; frequently abbreviated as NL) is the easternmost province of Canada, in the country's Atlantic region. The province comprises the island of Newfoundland and the continental region ...
*Offshore
Offshore may refer to:
Science and technology
* Offshore (hydrocarbons)
* Offshore construction, construction out at sea
* Offshore drilling, discovery and development of oil and gas resources which lie underwater through drilling a well
* Off ...
gas drilling and production on Sable Island
Sable Island (french: île de Sable, literally "island of sand") is a small Canadian island situated southeast of Halifax, Nova Scotia, and about southeast of the closest point of mainland Nova Scotia in the North Atlantic Ocean. The island i ...
fields off the coast of Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia ( ; ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. Nova Scotia is Latin for "New Scotland".
Most of the population are native Eng ...
*Sporadic drilling along continental shelf off Nova Scotia (e.g. Shelburne Basin)
*Sporadic drilling in Laurentian fan The Laurentian Fan or Laurentian Abyss is an underwater depression off the eastern coast of Canada in the Atlantic Ocean. Not a trench, but more of an "underwater valley", it is estimated to be at most ~19,685 feet (3.7 miles; 6.0 km) in depth. The ...
at southern end of Cabot Strait
Cabot Strait
(; french: détroit de Cabot, ) is a strait in eastern Canada approximately 110 kilometres wide between Cape Ray, Newfoundland and Cape North, Cape Breton Island.
It is the widest of the three outlets for the Gulf of Saint L ...
*Sporadic drilling in eastern Northumberland Strait
The Northumberland Strait (French: ''détroit de Northumberland'') is a strait in the southern part of the Gulf of Saint Lawrence in eastern Canada. The strait is formed by Prince Edward Island and the gulf's eastern, southern, and western sho ...
Long-term outlook
Canadian oil production 1950 to 2030.svg, Canadian conventional oil production peaked in 1973, but oil sands production is forecast to increase until at least 2020
Image:Hubbert US high.svg, US oil production (crude oil only) and Hubbert high estimate.
Image:Mexican Petroleum Production.PNG, Mexican production peaked in 2004 and is now in decline
Broadly speaking Canadian conventional oil production (via standard deep drilling) peaked in the mid-1970s, but East Coast offshore basins being exploited in Atlantic Canada did not peak until 2007 and are still producing at relatively high rates.
Production from the Alberta oil sands
Oil sands, tar sands, crude bitumen, or bituminous sands, are a type of unconventional petroleum deposit. Oil sands are either loose sands or partially consolidated sandstone containing a naturally occurring mixture of sand, clay, and wate ...
is still in its early stages and the province's established bitumen resources will last for generations into the future. 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 ...
estimates that the province has of ultimately recoverable bitumen resources. At the 2014 production rate of , they would last for about 375 years. The AER projects that bitumen production will increase to by 2024, but at that rate they would still last for about 213 years. Because of the enormous size of the known oil sands deposits, economic, labor, environmental, and government policy considerations are the constraints on production rather than finding new deposits.
In addition, the Alberta Energy Regulator has recently identified over of unconventional shale oil resources in the province. This volume is larger than the province's oil sands resources, and if developed would give Canada the largest crude oil reserves in the world. However, due to the recent nature of the discoveries there are not yet any plans to develop them.
Oil fields of Canada
These oil fields are or were economically important to the Canadian economy:
*Oil Springs, Ontario
Oil Springs is a village in Lambton County, Ontario, Canada, located along Former Provincial Highway 21 south of Oil City. The village, an enclave within Enniskillen Township, is the site of North America's first commercial oil well. It is home ...
* Turner Valley oil field, Alberta
* Leduc oil field, Alberta
* Pembina oil field, Alberta
* Athabasca oil sands, Alberta
* Peace River oil sands, Alberta
* Cold Lake oil sands, Alberta
*Duvernay Formation
The Duvernay Formation is a stratigraphical unit of Frasnian age in the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin.
It was first described in well Anglo Canadian Beaverhill Lake No. 2 in LSD 11-11-50-17W4M by Imperial Oil staff in 1950. The formation wa ...
, Alberta (shale oil and gas)
*Montney Formation
The Montney Formation is a stratigraphical unit of Lower Triassic age in the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin in British Columbia and Alberta.
It takes the name from the hamlet of Montney and was first described in Texaco's Buick Creek No. 7 w ...
, Alberta, BC (shale oil and gas)
*Hibernia oil field
Hibernia is an oil field in the North Atlantic Ocean, approximately east-southeast of St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada, in 80 m of water.Hurley, T.J., Kreisa, R.D., Taylor, G.G., and Yates, W.R.L., 1992, The Reservoir Geology and Geophysics of ...
, offshore Newfoundland
*Terra Nova oil field
Terra Nova is an oil field development project based off the coast of Newfoundland (island), Newfoundland, discovered in 1984 by Petro-Canada. Terra Nova is the first harsh environment development in North America to use a Floating Production Sto ...
, offshore Newfoundland
*White Rose oil field
White Rose is an oil field development project off the coast of Newfoundland (island), Newfoundland. Husky Energy is the operator and 72.5 per cent interest holder in the White Rose oil fields.
Discovered in 1984, the White Rose offshore oil f ...
, offshore Newfoundland
Upstream, midstream and downstream components of Canadian petroleum industry
There are three components of the Canadian petroleum industry: upstream, midstream and downstream.
Upstream
The upstream oil sector is also commonly known as the ''exploration and production (E&P) sector''.[Petroleum industry](_blank)
/ref>
[Industry Overview](_blank)
from the website of the Petroleum Services Association of Canada (PSAC)
The upstream sector includes the searching for potential underground or underwater crude oil
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 crude ...
and 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 ...
fields, drilling of exploratory wells, and subsequently drilling and operating the wells that recover and bring the crude oil and/or raw natural gas to the surface. With the development of methods for extracting methane
Methane ( , ) is a chemical compound with the chemical formula (one carbon atom bonded to four hydrogen atoms). It is a group-14 hydride, the simplest alkane, and the main constituent of natural gas. The relative abundance of methane on Eart ...
from coal
Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen.
Coal is formed when dea ...
seams, there has been a significant shift toward including unconventional gas
Unconventional gas is natural gas obtained from sources of production that are, in a given era and location, considered to be new and different when compared with conventional gas. Sources that are at times considered to be unconventional include ...
as a part of the upstream sector, and corresponding developments in liquified natural gas (LNG) processing and transport. The upstream sector of the petroleum industry includes Extraction of petroleum
Petroleum is a fossil fuel that can be drawn from beneath the earth's surface. Reservoirs of petroleum was formed through the mixture of plants, algae, and sediments in shallow seas under high pressure. Petroleum is mostly recovered from oil dri ...
, Oil production plant
An oil production plant is a facility which processes production fluids from oil wells in order to separate out key components and prepare them for export. Typical oil well production fluids are a mixture of oil, gas and produced water. An oil prod ...
, Oil refinery
An oil refinery or petroleum refinery is an industrial process plant where petroleum (crude oil) is transformed and refined into useful products such as gasoline (petrol), diesel fuel, asphalt base, fuel oils, heating oil, kerosene, lique ...
and Oil well
An oil well is a drillhole boring in Earth that is designed to bring petroleum oil hydrocarbons to the surface. Usually some natural gas is released as associated petroleum gas along with the oil. A well that is designed to produce only gas may ...
.
Midstream
The midstream sector involves the transportation, storage, and wholesale marketing of crude or refined petroleum products. Canada has a large network of pipelines - over 840,000 km - that transport crude oil and natural gas across the country. There are four main pipeline groups: gathering, feeder, transmission, and distribution pipelines. Gathering pipelines transport crude oil and natural gas from wells drilled in the subsurface to oil batteries or natural gas processing facilities. The majority of these pipelines are found in petroleum producing areas in Western Canada. Feeder pipelines move crude oil, natural gas, and natural gas liquids (NGLs) from the batteries, processing facilities, and storage tanks to the long-distance portion of the transportation system: transmission pipelines. These are the major carriers of crude oil, natural gas, and NGLs within provinces and across provincial or international borders, where the products are either sent to refineries or exported to other markets. Finally, distribution pipelines are the conduit for delivering natural gas to downstream customers, such as local utilities, and then further distributed to homes and businesses. If pipelines are near capacity or non-existent in certain areas, crude oil is then transported over land by rail
Rail or rails may refer to:
Rail transport
*Rail transport and related matters
*Rail (rail transport) or railway lines, the running surface of a railway
Arts and media Film
* ''Rails'' (film), a 1929 Italian film by Mario Camerini
* ''Rail'' ( ...
or truck
A truck or lorry is a motor vehicle designed to transport cargo, carry specialized payloads, or perform other utilitarian work. Trucks vary greatly in size, power, and configuration, but the vast majority feature body-on-frame construction ...
, or over water by marine vessels.
The midstream operations are often taken to include some elements of the upstream and downstream sectors. For example, the midstream sector may include natural gas processing
Natural-gas processing is a range of industrial processes designed to purify raw natural gas by removing impurities, contaminants and higher molecular mass hydrocarbons to produce what is known as ''pipeline quality'' dry natural gas. Natural gas ...
plants which purify the raw natural gas as well as removing and producing elemental sulfur and natural gas liquids (NGL) as finished end-products. Midstream service providers in Canada refer to Barge
Barge nowadays generally refers to a flat-bottomed inland waterway vessel which does not have its own means of mechanical propulsion. The first modern barges were pulled by tugs, but nowadays most are pushed by pusher boats, or other vessels ...
companies, Railroad
Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...
companies, Trucking and hauling companies, Pipeline transport
Pipeline transport is the long-distance transportation of a liquid or gas through a system of pipes—a pipeline—typically to a market area for consumption. The latest data from 2014 gives a total of slightly less than of pipeline in 120 countr ...
companies, Logistics
Logistics is generally the detailed organization and implementation of a complex operation. In a general business sense, logistics manages the flow of goods between the point of origin and the point of consumption to meet the requirements of ...
and technology
Technology is the application of knowledge to reach practical goals in a specifiable and reproducible way. The word ''technology'' may also mean the product of such an endeavor. The use of technology is widely prevalent in medicine, science, ...
companies, Transloading
Transloading, also known as cross-docking, is the process of transferring a shipment from one mode of transportation to another. It is most commonly employed when one mode cannot be used for the entire trip, such as when goods must be shipped in ...
companies and Terminal developers and operators. Development of the massive oil sand reserves in Alberta would be facilitated by enhancing the North American pipeline network which would transport dilbit
Dilbit (diluted bitumen) is a bitumen diluted with one or more lighter petroleum products, typically natural-gas condensates such as naphtha. Diluting bitumen makes it much easier to transport, for example in pipelines. Per the Alberta Oil Sands B ...
to refineries or export facilities.
Downstream
The downstream sector commonly refers to the refining of petroleum crude oil and the processing and purifying of raw natural gas, as well as the marketing and distribution of products derived from crude oil and 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 ...
. The downstream sector touches consumers through products such as gasoline or petrol, kerosene
Kerosene, paraffin, or lamp oil is a combustible hydrocarbon liquid which is derived from petroleum. It is widely used as a fuel in aviation as well as households. Its name derives from el, κηρός (''keros'') meaning "wax", and was regi ...
, jet fuel
Jet fuel or aviation turbine fuel (ATF, also abbreviated avtur) is a type of aviation fuel designed for use in aircraft powered by gas-turbine engines. It is colorless to straw-colored in appearance. The most commonly used fuels for commercial a ...
, diesel oil
Diesel fuel , also called diesel oil, is any liquid fuel specifically designed for use in a diesel engine, a type of internal combustion engine in which fuel ignition takes place without a spark as a result of compression of the inlet air and t ...
, heating oil
Heating oil is any petroleum product or other oil used for heating; a fuel oil. Most commonly, it refers to low viscosity grades of fuel oil used for furnaces or boilers use for home heating and in other buildings. Home heating oil is often a ...
, fuel oil
Fuel oil is any of various fractions obtained from the distillation of petroleum (crude oil). Such oils include distillates (the lighter fractions) and residues (the heavier fractions). Fuel oils include heavy fuel oil, marine fuel oil (MFO), bun ...
s, lubricants
A lubricant (sometimes shortened to lube) is a substance that helps to reduce friction between surfaces in mutual contact, which ultimately reduces the heat generated when the surfaces move. It may also have the function of transmitting forces, t ...
, waxes
Waxes are a diverse class of organic compounds that are lipophilic, malleable solids near ambient temperatures. They include higher alkanes and lipids, typically with melting points above about 40 °C (104 °F), melting to give low ...
, asphalt
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 ...
, 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 ...
, and liquified petroleum gas (LPG) as well as hundreds of petrochemical
Petrochemicals (sometimes abbreviated as petchems) are the chemical products obtained from petroleum by refining. Some chemical compounds made from petroleum are also obtained from other fossil fuels, such as coal or natural gas, or renewable sou ...
s. Midstream operations are often included in the downstream category and considered to be a part of the downstream sector.
Crude oil
Crude oil, for example, 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 ...
(WCS) is a mixture of many varieties of hydrocarbons
In organic chemistry, a hydrocarbon is an organic compound consisting entirely of hydrogen and carbon. Hydrocarbons are examples of group 14 hydrides. Hydrocarbons are generally colourless and hydrophobic, and their odors are usually weak or ex ...
and most usually has many sulfur-containing compounds. The refining process converts most of that sulfur into gaseous hydrogen sulfide
Hydrogen sulfide is a chemical compound with the formula . It is a colorless chalcogen-hydride gas, and is poisonous, corrosive, and flammable, with trace amounts in ambient atmosphere having a characteristic foul odor of rotten eggs. The unde ...
. Raw natural gas also may contain gaseous hydrogen sulfide and sulfur-containing mercaptans
In organic chemistry, a thiol (; ), or thiol derivative, is any organosulfur compound of the form , where R represents an alkyl or other organic substituent. The functional group itself is referred to as either a thiol group or a sulfhydryl gro ...
, which are removed in natural gas processing
Natural-gas processing is a range of industrial processes designed to purify raw natural gas by removing impurities, contaminants and higher molecular mass hydrocarbons to produce what is known as ''pipeline quality'' dry natural gas. Natural gas ...
plants before the gas is distributed to consumers. The hydrogen sulfide
Hydrogen sulfide is a chemical compound with the formula . It is a colorless chalcogen-hydride gas, and is poisonous, corrosive, and flammable, with trace amounts in ambient atmosphere having a characteristic foul odor of rotten eggs. The unde ...
removed in the refining and processing of crude oil and natural gas is subsequently converted into byproduct elemental sulfur. In fact, the vast majority of the 64,000,000 metric tons of sulfur produced worldwide in 2005 was byproduct sulfur from refineries and natural gas processing plants.
Export capacity
Total Canadian crude oil production, most of which is coming from the Western Canada 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 ...
(WCSB), is forecast to increase from 3.85 million barrels per day (b/d) in 2016 to 5.12 million b/d by 2030. Supply from the Alberta oil sands accounts for most of the growth and is expected to increase from 1.3 million b/d in 2016 to 3.7 million b/d in 2030. Bitumen from the oil sands requires blending with a diluent
A diluent (also referred to as a filler, dilutant or thinner) is a Concentration, diluting agent. Certain fluids are too Viscosity, viscous to be pumped easily or too density, dense to flow from one particular point to the other. This can be prob ...
in order to decrease its viscosity and density so that it can easily flow through pipelines. The addition of diluent will add an estimated 200,000 b/d to the total volumes of crude oil in Canada, for a total of 1.5 million extra barrels per day requiring the creation of additional transport capacity to markets. The current takeaway capacity in Western Canada is tight, as oil producers are beginning to outpace the movement of their products.
Pipeline capacity measurements are complex and subject to variability. They depend on a number of factors, such as the type of product being transported, the products it is mixed with, pressure reductions, maintenance, and pipeline configurations. The major oil pipelines exiting Western Canada have a design transport capacity of 4.0 million b/d. In 2016, however, the pipeline capacity was estimated at 3.9 million b/d,[ and in 2017 the ]Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers
Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...
(CAPP) estimated the pipeline capacity to be 3.3 million b/d. The lack of available pipeline capacity for petroleum forces oil producers to look to alternative transport methods, such as rail.
Crude-by-rail shipments are expected to increase as existing pipelines reach capacity and proposed pipelines experience approval delays. The rail loading capacity for crude in Western Canada is close to 1.2 million b/d, although this varies depending on several factors including the length of the unit trains, size and type of railcars used, and the types of crude oil loaded. Other studies, however, estimate the current rail loading capacity in Western Canada to be 754,000 b/d. The International Energy Agency
The International Energy Agency (IEA) is a Paris-based autonomous intergovernmental organisation, established in 1974, that provides policy recommendations, analysis and data on the entire global energy sector, with a recent focus on curbing carb ...
(IEA) forecasts that crude-by-rail exports will increase from 150,000 b/d in late 2017 to 390,000 b/d in 2019, which is much greater than the record high of 179,000 b/d in 2014. The IEA also warns that rail shipments could reach as high as 590,000 b/d in 2019 unless producers store their produced crude during peak months. The oil industry in the WCSB may need to continue to rely on rail in the forecastable future, as no major new pipeline capacity is expected to be available before 2019. The capacity - to a certain extent - is there, but producers must be willing to pay a premium to move crude by rail.
Getting to tidewater
Canada has had access to western tide water since 1953, with a capacity of roughly 200,000 - 300,000 bp
via the Kinder Morgan Pipeline. There is a myth perpetuated in Canadian media that Canadian WCS oil producers will have better access to “international prices” with greater access to tidewate
however, this claim does not take into account existing access. Shipments to Asia reached their peak in 2012 when the equivalent of nine fully loaded tankers of oil left Vancouver for China. Since then, oil exports to Asia have completely dropped of
to the point at which China imported only 600 barrels of oil in 201
With regard to the claim that Canada does not have access to “international prices”, many economists decry the concept that Canada does have access to the globalized economy as ridiculous and attribute the price differential to the costs of shipping heavy, sour crude thousands of kilometres, compounded by over supply in the destinations able to process aforementioned oi
Due to a doubling of a “production and export” model bet on by the biggest players in the tar sands, producers have recently (2018) encountered an over supply problem, and have sought further government subsidies to lessen the blow of their financial miscalculations earlier this decade.
Preferred access ports include the US Gulf ports via the Keystone XL
The Keystone Pipeline System is an oil pipeline system in Canada and the United States, commissioned in 2010 and owned by TC Energy and as of 31 March 2020 the Government of Alberta. It runs from the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin in Albert ...
pipeline to the south, the British Columbia Pacific coast in Kitimat
Kitimat is a district municipality in the North Coast region of British Columbia, Canada. It is a member municipality of the Regional District of Kitimat–Stikine regional government. The Kitimat Valley is part of the most populous urban distr ...
via the Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipelines
The Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipelines were a project to build a twin pipeline from Bruderheim, Alberta to Kitimat, British Columbia. The eastbound pipeline would have imported natural gas condensate and the westbound pipeline would have exporte ...
, and the Trans Mountain line to Vancouver, BC. Frustrated by delays in getting approval for Keystone XL
The Keystone Pipeline System is an oil pipeline system in Canada and the United States, commissioned in 2010 and owned by TC Energy and as of 31 March 2020 the Government of Alberta. It runs from the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin in Albert ...
, the Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipelines
The Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipelines were a project to build a twin pipeline from Bruderheim, Alberta to Kitimat, British Columbia. The eastbound pipeline would have imported natural gas condensate and the westbound pipeline would have exporte ...
, and the expansion of the existing Trans Mountain line to Vancouver
Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...
, Alberta has intensified exploration of northern projects, such as building a pipeline to the northern hamlet of Tuktoyatuk near the Beaufort Sea
The Beaufort Sea (; french: Mer de Beaufort, Iñupiaq: ''Taġiuq'') is a marginal sea of the Arctic Ocean, located north of the Northwest Territories, the Yukon, and Alaska, and west of Canada's Arctic islands. The sea is named after Sir Fr ...
, "to help the province get its oil to tidewater, making it available for export to overseas markets". Under Prime Minister Stephen Harper
Stephen Joseph Harper (born April 30, 1959) is a Canadian politician who served as the 22nd prime minister of Canada from 2006 to 2015. Harper is the first and only prime minister to come from the modern-day Conservative Party of Canada, ...
, the Canadian government spent $9 million by May 2012, and $16.5 million by May 2013, to promote Keystone XL. In the United States, Democrats are concerned that Keystone XL would simply facilitate getting Alberta oil sands products to tidewater for export to China and other countries via the American Gulf Coast of Mexico.
In 2013, Generating for Seven Generations (G7G) and AECOM
AECOM (, ; formerly AECOM Technology Corporation) is an American multinational infrastructure consulting firm.
AECOM has approximately 51,000 employees, and is number 157 on the 2019 Fortune 500 list.
The company's official name from 1990 t ...
received $1.8 million in funding from Alberta Energy
The Ministry of Energy is a Cabinet-level agency of the government of the Canadian province of Alberta responsible for coordinating policy relating to the development of mineral and energy resources. It is also responsible for assessing and colle ...
to study the feasibility of building a railway from northern Alberta to the Port of Valdez, Alaska
Valdez ( ; Alutiiq: ) is a city in the Chugach Census Area in the U.S. state of Alaska. According to the 2020 US Census, the population of the city is 3,985, up from 3,976 in 2010. It is the third most populated city in Alaska's Unorganized Borou ...
. The proposed 2,440-km railway would be capable of transporting 1 million to 1.5 million b/d of bitumen and petroleum products, as well as other commodities, to tidewater (avoiding the tanker ban along British Columbia's northern coast). The last leg of the route - Delta Junction
Delta Junction ( uk, Делта-Джанкшен, Delta Dzhankshen) is a city in the Southeast Fairbanks Census Area, Alaska, United States. As of the 2010 census, the population was 958, up from 840 in 2000. The 2018 estimate was down to 931. T ...
through the coastal mountain range to Valdez - was not deemed economically feasible by rail; an alternative, however, may be the transfer of products to the underutilized Trans Alaska Pipeline System (TAPS) to Valdez.
Port Metro Vancouver has a number of petroleum terminals, including Suncor Burrard Terminal in Port Moody, Imperial Oil Ioco Terminal in Burrard Inlet East, and Kinder Morgan Westridge, Shell Canada Shellburn, and Chevron Canada Stanovan terminals in Burnaby.
Pipeline versus rail debate
The public debate surrounding the trade-offs between pipeline and rail transportation has been developing over the past decade as the amount of crude oil transported by rail has increased. It was invigorated in 2013 after the deadly Lac-Mégantic disaster in Quebec when a freight train derailed and spilled 5.56 million litres of crude oil, which resulted in explosions and fires that destroyed much of the town's core. That same year, a train carrying propane and crude derailed near Gainford, Alberta, resulting in two explosions but no injuries or fatalities. These rail accidents
This is the list of rail accident lists.
Lists By year
By type
*By country
* By death toll
*Terrorist incidents
See also
* Classification of railway accidents
* Derailment
*Rail Transport
* Train wreck
A train wreck, train collision, t ...
, among other examples, have raised concerns that the regulation of rail transport is inadequate for large-scale crude oil shipments. Pipeline failures also occur, for instance, in 2015 a Nexen
CNOOC Petroleum North America ULC, formerly known as Nexen, is a Canadian oil and gas company based in Calgary, Alberta.
Originally the Canadian subsidiary of US-based Occidental Petroleum (known as Canadian Occidental Petroleum or CanOxy), it ...
pipeline ruptured and leaked 5 million litres of crude oil over approximately 16,000 m2 at the company's Long Lake oilsands facility south of Fort McMurray. Although both pipeline and rail transportation are generally quite safe, neither mode is without risk. Numerous studies, however, indicate that pipelines are safer, based on the number of occurrences (accidents and incidents) weighed against the quantity of product transported. Between 2004 and 2015, the likelihood of rail accidents in Canada was 2.6 times greater than for pipelines per thousand barrels of oil equivalents (Mboe). Natural gas products were 4.8 times more likely to have a rail occurrence when compared to similar commodities transported by pipelines. Critics question if pipelines carrying diluted bitumen from Alberta's oil sands are more likely to corrode and cause incidents, but evidence shows the risk of corrosion being no different from that of other crude oils.
Costs
A 2017 study by the National Bureau of Economic Research
The National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) is an American private nonprofit research organization "committed to undertaking and disseminating unbiased economic research among public policymakers, business professionals, and the academic c ...
found that contrary to popular belief, the sum of air pollution and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions costs is substantially larger than accidents and spill costs for both pipelines and rail. For crude oil transported from the North Dakota Bakken Formation
The Bakken Formation () is a rock unit from the Late Devonian to Early Mississippian age occupying about of the subsurface of the Williston Basin, underlying parts of Montana, North Dakota, Saskatchewan and Manitoba. The formation was initi ...
, air pollution and greenhouse gas emission
Greenhouse gas emissions from human activities strengthen the greenhouse effect, contributing to climate change. Most is carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels: coal, oil, and natural gas. The largest emitters include coal in China and la ...
costs are substantially larger for rail compared to pipeline. For pipelines and rail, the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration
The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) is a United States Department of Transportation agency created in 2004, responsible for developing and enforcing regulations for the safe, reliable, and environmentally sound opera ...
's (PHMSA) central estimate of spill and accident costs is US$62 and US$381 per million-barrel miles transported, respectively. Total GHG and air pollution costs are 8 times higher than accident and spills costs for pipelines (US$531 vs US$62) and 3 times higher for rail (US$1015 vs US$381).
Finally, transporting oil and gas by rail is generally more expensive for producers than transporting it by pipeline. On average, it costs between US$10-$15 per barrel to transport oil and gas by rail compared to $5 a barrel for pipeline. In 2012,16 million barrels of oil were exported to USA by rail. By 2014, that number increased to 59 million barrels. Although quantities decreased to 48 million in 2017, the competitive advantages offered by rail, particularly its access to remote regions as well as lack of regulatory and social challenges compared with building new pipelines, will likely make it a viable transportation method for years to come. Both forms of transportation play a role in moving oil efficiently, but each has its unique trade-offs in terms of the benefits it offers.
Regulatory agencies in Canada
The jurisdiction over the petroleum industry in Canada, which includes energy policies regulating the petroleum industry, is shared between the federal
Federal or foederal (archaic) may refer to:
Politics
General
*Federal monarchy, a federation of monarchies
*Federation, or ''Federal state'' (federal system), a type of government characterized by both a central (federal) government and states or ...
and provincial and territorial governments. Provincial governments have jurisdiction over the exploration, development, conservation, and management of non-renewable resources
A non-renewable resource (also called a finite resource) is a natural resource that cannot be readily replaced by natural means at a pace quick enough to keep up with consumption. An example is carbon-based fossil fuels. The original organic mat ...
such as petroleum products. Federal jurisdiction in energy is primarily concerned with regulation of inter-provincial and international trade
International trade is the exchange of capital, goods, and services across international borders or territories because there is a need or want of goods or services. (see: World economy)
In most countries, such trade represents a significant ...
(which included pipelines) and commerce, and the management of non-renewable resources such as petroleum products on federal lands
Federal lands are lands in the United States owned by the federal government. Pursuant to the Property Clause of the United States Constitution ( Article 4, section 3, clause 2), Congress has the power to retain, buy, sell, and regulate federal l ...
.[
]
Natural Resources Canada (NRCan)
Oil and Gas Policy and Regulatory Affairs Division (Oil and Gas Division) of Natural Resources Canada (NRCan) provides an annual review of and summaries of trending of crude oil, natural gas and petroleum product industry in Canada and the United States (US)
National Energy Board
Until February 2018, the petroleum industry was also regulated by the National Energy Board
The National Energy Board was an independent economic regulatory agency created in 1959 by the Government of Canada to oversee "international and inter-provincial aspects of the oil, gas and electric utility industries". Its head office was located ...
(NEB), an independent federal regulatory agency
A regulatory agency (regulatory body, regulator) or independent agency (independent regulatory agency) is a government authority that is responsible for exercising autonomous dominion over some area of human activity in a licensing and regulatin ...
. The NEB regulated inter-provincial and international oil and gas pipeline transport
Pipeline transport is the long-distance transportation of a liquid or gas through a system of pipes—a pipeline—typically to a market area for consumption. The latest data from 2014 gives a total of slightly less than of pipeline in 120 countr ...
and power lines
Electric power transmission is the bulk movement of electrical energy from a generating site, such as a power plant, to an electrical substation. The interconnected lines that facilitate this movement form a ''transmission network''. This is ...
; the export and import of natural gas under long-term licenses and short-term orders, oil exports under long-term licenses and short-term orders (no applications for long-term exports have been filed in recent years), and frontier lands Frontier lands are Crown owned lands in Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , maki ...
and offshore areas not covered by provincial/federal management agreements.
In 1985, the federal government and the provincial governments 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 ...
agreed to deregulate
Deregulation is the process of removing or reducing state regulations, typically in the economic sphere. It is the repeal of governmental regulation of the economy. It became common in advanced industrial economies in the 1970s and 1980s, as a ...
the prices of crude oil and natural gas. Offshore oil Atlantic Canada
Atlantic Canada, also called the Atlantic provinces (french: provinces de l'Atlantique), is the region of Eastern Canada comprising the provinces located on the Atlantic coast, excluding Quebec. The four provinces are New Brunswick, Newfoundlan ...
is administered under joint federal and provincial responsibility in Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia ( ; ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. Nova Scotia is Latin for "New Scotland".
Most of the population are native Eng ...
and Newfoundland and Labrador
Newfoundland and Labrador (; french: Terre-Neuve-et-Labrador; frequently abbreviated as NL) is the easternmost province of Canada, in the country's Atlantic region. The province comprises the island of Newfoundland and the continental region ...
.
Provincial regulatory agencies
There were few regulations in the early years of the petroleum industry. In Turner Valley
Turner Valley is a town in the Calgary Metropolitan Region of Alberta, Canada that is surrounded by Foothills County. It is on Highway 22 (Cowboy Trail), west of Black Diamond and approximately southwest of Calgary. It was named after Robert a ...
, Alberta for example, where the first significant field of petroleum was found in 1914, it was common to extract a small amount of petroleum liquids by flaring off about 90% of the natural gas. According to a 2001 report that amount of gas that would have been worth billions. In 1938 the Alberta provincial government responded to the conspicuous and wasteful burning of natural gas. By the time crude oil was discovered in the Turner Valley field, in 1930, most of the free gas cap had been flared off. The Alberta Petroleum and Natural Gas Conservation Board (today known as the Energy Resources Conservation Board
The Energy Resources Conservation Board (ERCB) was an independent, quasi-judicial agency of the Government of Alberta. It regulated the safe, responsible, and efficient development of Alberta's energy resources: oil, natural gas, oil sands, coal, a ...
) was established in 1931 to initiate conservation measures but by that time the Depression caused a waning of interest in petroleum production in Turner Valley which was revived from 1939 to 1945.[
]
See also
*''The Petroleum Papers
''The Petroleum Papers'' is a 2022 non-fiction book by journalist Geoff Dembicki on climate change and the fossil fuel industry.
The book documents that specific oil companies had an early awareness of the relationship between climate change and ...
'', 2022 book by Geoff Dembicki
Geoff Dembicki is a Canadian climate journalist and author. He wrote ''Are We Screwed?'' (2017) and ''The Petroleum Papers'' (2022).
Early life and education
Dembicki is from Alberta. He obtained his bachelor’s degree in journalism from Carle ...
*Climate change in Canada
Climate change in Canada has had large impacts on the country's environment and landscapes. The number of climate change–related events, such as the 2021 British Columbia Floods and an increasing number of forest fires, has become an increasin ...
*Coal in Canada
Coal reserves in Canada rank 13th largest in the world (following the former Soviet Union, the United States, the People's Republic of China and Australia) at approximately 10 billion tons, 0.6% of the world total. This represents more energy th ...
* Petroleum technician
*Renewable energy in Canada
, renewable energy technologies provide about 17.3% of Canada's total primary energy supply. For electricity renewables provide 67%, with 15% from nuclear and 18% from hydrocarbons.
The majority of renewable energy produced in Canada comes from ...
References
Further reading
*
External links
CBC Digital Archives - Striking Oil in Alberta
Canadian Fuels Association
The Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP)
Alberta Government Oil Sands Information Portal
Interactive Map and Data Library
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