Opportunities and Challenges of the Canadian Crude Oil Sector

摘要

Canada is home to vast oil reserves and is on the road to becoming a globally competitive oil exporter, but is presently facing a challenging juncture amid depressed oil prices, mid-stream constraints, and uncertainty surrounding new federal and provincial governments. Canada has the third largest proven oil reserves in the world at an estimated 173 billion barrels, which is around 10% of the world's reserves. In the province of Alberta, the oil sands hold around 97% of total Canadian reserves (NRCAN, 2014). Total crude production in Canada has grown from 2.8 million barrels per day (mb/d) in 2010 to a forecasted average of 3.8 mb/d in 2015 (CAPP, 2015). The primary driver of this growth has been and will continue to be from production in the oil sands, estimated to account for 60% of production in 2015. Due to the recent crash in oil prices, the Canadian Association for Petroleum Producers (CAPP) has reduced forecasts for 2030 to 5.33 mb/d for total Canadian production and 4 mb/d for oil sands production as seen in Fig. 1-0.