Industry Snapshot

The world has changed. Albertans are looking forward, not back, and we recognize our enormous potential as a place that is strong and growing - growing in infrastructure, experience, history and energy.

The oil and gas industry is vital to our prosperity. A healthy oil and gas industry provides Albertans with the following: 

• Good jobs
• Government revenue
• Increased opportunity for public programs
• Strong communities
• A high quality of life
• Improved standard of living  

Crude Oil

Canada’s oil industry produces over 2.6 million barrels of oil per day, and is part of the global crude oil market. Crude oil is one of the most actively traded commodities in the world. Because of this, oil prices change daily in response to changing conditions. For Albertans to benefit from our natural resources, we must be positioned to compete in the global market.

Conventional oil is either light or heavy. Heavy refers to oil with a thick consistency that does not flow easily, while light oil can flow naturally to the surface or is extracted from the ground using pumpjacks.

In Western Canada, oil is transported by pipelines from the production facility to refineries where it is upgraded into products like gasoline, heating oil and jet fuel.

As the world’s supply of light oil diminishes, heavy oil becomes a larger proportion of the overall mix. Alberta has some of the largest supplies of heavy oil in the world.

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Natural Gas

In recent years, oil sands have overshadowed Alberta’s conventional oil and natural gas industry in the public eye. However, in 2009 conventional oil and natural gas investment in Alberta was $13 billion compared to $10 billion invested in oil sands. So while many people notice when oil prices go down, we also need to be concerned about natural gas and its contribution to our economy.

Natural gas remains an abundant resource in Alberta. Natural gas consists of methane and light hydrocarbons. The production and refinement of natural gas supplies Alberta’s economy with valuable revenue, and creates many jobs across the province.

Because the easier-to-produce sources of natural gas are in decline, our industry is turning to sources that are more difficult and expensive to develop. These require advanced technology, processes and expertise to produce natural gas from sources like tight sands gas, offshore gas, shale gas and coal bed gas.

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Oil Sands

The oil sands are a valuable part of Canada’s energy industry. Our country possesses approximately 175 billion barrels of oil that can be recovered with today’s technology. Of that number, 170 billion are located in the oil sands.

Canada’s oil sands are found in three deposits – the Athabasca, Peace River and Cold Lake areas in Alberta and part of Saskatchewan. The greatest quantity is found in the Athabasca deposit.

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Natural Gas Pipeline

In 2007, Alberta’s natural gas pipelines transported 4,558 billion cubic feet of marketable gas, or about 12.5 billion cubic feet per day.

TransCanada’s 100% owned natural gas transmission system gathers natural gas for use within the province and delivers it to provincial boundary points for connection with the Canadian Mainline, BC System, the Foothills System and other pipelines. The 23,186 kilometer system is one of the largest carriers of natural gas in North America.

Crude Oil Pipeline

In 2007, an average of 453,425 barrels per day - or a total of 165.5 million barrels of crude oil and equivalent - were delivered to Alberta refineries.

Refinery

The Imperial oil refinery is located in Strathcona County. In May 2006, the Strathcona refinery began producing ultra low-sulphur diesel, reducing its sulphur content by more than 97%. The refinery has approximately 430 employees and 250 contractors, and has a daily rated capacity of 187,000 barrels of crude oil.

Shell Canada’s Scotford Refinery is the first refinery to exclusively process synthetic crude from Alberta’s oilsands. The refinery has more than 750 full-time staff and long-term contractors, and a capacity of 100,000 barrels of synthetic crude oil daily.

Petro Canada’s refinery is currently undergoing upgrades to process oilsands feedstock exclusively. The project is expected to cost about $2.2 billion.

• Suncor Energy Products Inc.

  Edmonton Refinery
  Edmonton AB

• Shell Canada Products Limited

  Scotford Refinery
  Fort Saskatchewan AB

• Imperial Oil Limited

  Strathcona Refinery
  Edmonton AB

Hydro Electric Plant

Alberta currently has 900 megawatts of installed hydroelectricity generating capacity.

Alberta currently has 16 hydro facilities in operation. Ontario leads the country with 63.

The Brazeau facility, operated by TransAlta is the largest in the province providing 42% (355 megawatts) of all Alberta’s hydroelectricity.

Alberta received approval from the Joint Review Panel in December 2008 to proceed on the Canadian Hydro Developers proposed 100-megawatt Dunvegan Hydro Project. The project is a low-head, run-of-the-river hydroelectric generating facility which, when completed, will provide enough electricity for more than 80,000 homes.

Coal Mine

Coal is the world's most abundant fossil fuel and Canada is ranked tenth in the world in total proven coal reserves. Alberta’s coal reserves represent 70 per cent of Canada’s total reserves.

Alberta’s coal reserves contain more than twice the energy of the entire province's other non-renewable energy resources, including conventional oil and pentanes, natural gas, natural gas liquids and bitumen and synthetic crude.

Alberta’s energy industry started with coal mining in the late 1800’s. Today, Alberta produces 25 to 30 million tonnes of coal each year from its eleven mines. Approximately 12 million tonnes comes from the Highvale mine alone, making it the largest coal mine in Canada.

Technologies, such as coal gasification, coal liquefaction, carbon dioxide storage and sequestration, have the potential to allow Alberta to utilize its coal with near-zero emissions into the atmosphere.

The Government of Alberta is investing $2 billion to encourage construction of the province’s first large-scale carbon capture and storage projects to reduce emissions at facilities such as coal-fired electricity plants and oil sands extraction sites and upgraders.

Coal has other uses. For example, gases, oil and tars extracted from coal can be used in the manufacture of products ranging from gasoline and perfumes to mothballs and baking powder. Coal can be processed many different ways to create a wide variety of products, from carbon filters to pharmaceuticals

Wind Farm

There are 22 wind farms in Alberta. With 523 megawatts of installed capacity - or enough to supply more than 400,000 homes with electricity for a year - Alberta has Canada's third largest wind power capacity behind Ontario and Quebec.

The largest wind farm is located in Taber and has an installed capacity of 81.4 megawatts.

The province of Alberta also has five new wind projects which are already under construction or for which there is a signed power purchase agreement. The largest of these is the 100 megawatt Glenridge Phase 1, scheduled to be completed by 2010.

According to Alberta Energy, another 83 wind projects with combined installed capacity of 11,880 megawatts have been proposed.

Since 2001, Calgary Transit in partnership with ENMAX and Vision Quest Windelectric Inc., has used wind-generated electricity to power the CTrain light rail system. Twelve wind turbines generate the wind power, reducing CO2 emissions by 26,000 tonnes annually.

Shale Gas

Shale gas is an unconventional, continuous natural gas reservoir that's contained within fine-grained rocks, dominated by shale.

With a declining amount of natural gas that is easy to obtain, shale gas is fundamentally changing North American market dynamics. Although there is currently little commercial shale gas production, there is active exploration, and shale gas will play a significant role in Canada’s and North America’s energy future. 

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Thermal Electric Facility

Alberta currently has 5,893 megawatts of coal plant electricity generating capacity and has the most cost coal-fired thermal generation facilities in the country – a total of eight..

The Sundance (Wabamun) facility, owned by TransAlta, is the largest in the province with 2,020 megawatts capacity.

Genessee 3 is the most technologically advanced coal-fired generation facility in Canada.

The facility uses a supercritical pressure boiler, in which higher temperatures, higher steam pressures and a high-efficiency steam turbine combine to produce a more efficient process for converting thermal energy into electricity.

Less coal is burned to produce each megawatt of electricity, thus reducing air emissions.