The Department of Natural ResourcesCanada, is the department of the federal Government of Canada responsible for natural resources, energy, minerals and metals, forests, earth sciences, mapping and remote sensing. It was created in 1995 by amalgamating the now-defunct Department of Energy, Mines and Resources, and Department of Forestry.
Canadian securities regulation is managed through laws and agencies established by Canada's 13 provincial and territorial governments. Each province and territory has a securities commission or equivalent authority and its own piece of provincial or territorial legislation.
A geological survey is the systematic investigation of the geology beneath a given piece of ground for the purpose of creating a geological map or model. Geological surveying employs techniques from the traditional walk-over survey, studying outcrops and landforms, to intrusive methods, such as hand augering and machine-driven boreholes, to the use of geophysical techniques and remote sensing methods, such as aerial photography and satellite imagery. Such surveys may be undertaken by state, province, or national geological survey organizations to maintain the geological inventory and advance the knowledge of geosciences for the benefit of the nation. A geological survey map typically superimposes the surveyed extent and boundaries of geological units on a topographic map, together with information at points and lines. The maps and reports created by geological survey organisations generally aim for geographic continuity and completeness in establishing the spatial patterns of near-surface rock units. The map may include cross sections to illustrate the three-dimensional interpretation. Subsurface geological and geophysical maps, providing limited coverage of deeper geology, are maintained internally by major oil companies and regulators. Some geological survey organisations have collaborated with them to include subsurface geology in their systematic surveys, for example, the Geological Atlas of the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin. Subsurface maps typically depict the three-dimensional form of geological surfaces by means of contours and cross sections. Computer-based models are increasingly used to provide more comprehensive information storage and greater flexibility of presentation. In the United States, the 50 state surveys are coordinated by the Association of American State Geologists.
Geoscience Australia is an agency of the Australian Government. It carries out geoscientific research. The agency is the government's technical adviser on all aspects of geoscience, and custodian of the geographic and geological data and knowledge of the nation.
Petroleum production in Canada is a major industry which is important to the economy of North America. Canada has the third largest oil reserves in the world and is the world's fourth largest oil producer and fourth largest oil exporter. In 2017 it produced an average of 667,747 cubic metres per day (4.2 Mbbl/d) of crude oil and equivalent. Of that amount, 64% was upgraded and non-upgraded bitumen from oil sands, and the remainder light crude oil, heavy crude oil and natural-gas condensate. Most of Canadian petroleum production is exported, approximately 3.8 million barrels per day 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 Jackson School of Geosciences at The University of Texas at Austin unites the Department of Geological Sciences with two research units, the Institute for Geophysics and the Bureau of Economic Geology.
Canada has access to all main sources of energy including oil and gas, coal, hydropower, biomass, solar, geothermal, wind, marine and nuclear. It is the world's second largest producer of uranium, third largest producer of hydro-electricity, fourth largest natural gas producer, and the fifth largest producer of crude oil. In 2006, only Russia, the People's Republic of China, the United States and Saudi Arabia produce more total energy than Canada.
Ecojustice Canada, is a Canadian non-profit environmental law organization that provides funding to lawyers to use litigation to defend and protect the environment. Ecojustice is Canada's largest environmental law charity.
The Energy and Utilities Board (EUB) was the governing body of the energy industry in the province of Alberta, Canada. Previously known as the Alberta Energy and Utilities Board (AEUB), the EUB was reorganized on 1 January 2008 into two separate regulatory bodies: the Energy Resources Conservation Board (ERCB), which regulates the oil and gas industry, and the Alberta Utilities Commission (AUC), which regulates the utilities industry.
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, and pipelines. Led by eight Board members, the ERCB's team of engineers, geologists, technicians, economists, and other professionals served Albertans from thirteen locations across the province.
The Mineral Core Research Facility (MCRF) is run by the Alberta Geological Survey (AGS) and assists the Alberta government's Department of Energy in administering the Metallic and Industrial Minerals Regulations of the Mines and Minerals Act for the Province of Alberta. Under these regulations, the Crown collects mineral core and rock samples from companies working on mineral permits and makes these materials publicly available for use by prospectors, mineral exploration companies and academia for mineral exploration and research purposes.
The Alberta Energy Regulator (AER) is an Alberta corporation, with its main office in Calgary, Alberta. The Alberta Energy Regulator's mandate under the Responsible Energy Development Act, passed on 10 December 2012 and proclaimed on 17 June 2013, is to provide safe, efficient, orderly, and environmentally responsible development of energy resources in the province. Under the REDA, the Alberta Government established the AER in December 2012 to provide a one-stop shop for regulatory approvals after industry complained about the delays and costs of red tape. The legislation combined duties of the Energy Resources Conservation Board with responsibilities of Alberta Environment and Sustainable Resource Development to create a single entity to administer the Public Lands Act, the Environmental Protection and Enhancement Act and the Water Act. The AER operates at arm's length from the Government of Alberta, under an appointed board of directors headed by Chair Gerry Protti, a former president of the oil industry lobby Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers. On 17 June 2013, all regulatory functions previously carried out by the Energy Resources Conservation Board were taken over by the Alberta Energy Regulator.
BRGM is France's public reference institution in Earth Science applications for the management of surface and subsurface resources and risks. It is the French Geological Survey.
Environment and Parks is the Alberta provincial ministry of the Executive Council of Alberta responsible for environmental policy and sustainable resource development. In "Optimizing Alberta Parks" published in March 2020, Parks Alberta announced that in 2020, about a third of the province's parks and protected and recreation areas would be closed or handed over to third parties in a cost-saving measure.
Oil sands tailings ponds are engineered dam and dyke systems used to capture oil sand tailings. Oil sand tailings contain a mixture of salts, suspended solids and other dissolvable chemical compounds such as acids, benzene, hydrocarbons residual bitumen, fine silts and water. Large volumes of tailings are a byproduct of bitumen extraction from the oil sands and managing these tailings is one of the most difficult environmental challenges facing the oil sands industry.
Hydraulic fracturing in Canada was first used in Alberta in 1953 to extract hydrocarbons from the giant Pembina oil field, the biggest conventional oil field in Alberta, which would have produced very little oil without fracturing. Since then, over 170,000 oil and gas wells have been fractured in Western Canada. Hydraulic fracturing is a process that stimulates natural gas or oil in wellbores to flow more easily by subjecting hydrocarbon reservoirs to pressure through the injection of fluids or gas at depth causing the rock to fracture or to widen existing cracks. New hydrocarbon production areas have been opened as hydraulic fracturing stimulating techniques are coupled with more recent advances in horizontal drilling. Complex wells that are many hundreds or thousands of metres below ground are extended even further through drilling of horizontal or directional sections. Massive fracturing has been widely used in Alberta since the late 1970s to recover gas from low-permeability sandstones such as the Spirit River Formation. The productivity of wells in the Cardium, Duvernay, and Viking formations in Alberta, Bakken formation in Saskatchewan, Montney and Horn River formations in British Columbia would not be possible without hydraulic fracturing technology. Hydraulic fracturing has revitalized legacy oilfields. "Hydraulic fracturing of horizontal wells in unconventional shale, silt and tight sand reservoirs unlocks gas, oil and liquids production that until recently was not considered possible." Conventional oil production in Canada was on a decrease since about 2004 but this changed with the increased production from these formations using hydraulic fracturing. Hydraulic fracturing is one of the primary technologies employed to extract shale gas or tight gas from unconventional reservoirs.
The Arkansas Geological Survey (AGS), formerly the Arkansas Geological Commission (AGC), is a government agency of the State of Arkansas. It is responsible for the investigation of the geology, geologic processes, and geologic resources within the state. It encourages the considered management and utilization of the state's mineral, fossil-fuel, and water resources with attention to the potential environmental issues of that activity.
Orphan wells in Alberta Canada refers to oil or gas well sites that have been permanently taken out of production that do not have any party legally or financially responsible to deal with decommissioning and reclamation obligations. By February 2018, there were 1,800 orphan wells that had been licensed by Alberta Energy Regulator (AER) with combined liabilities of over $110 million. Oil and gas industry companies have asset retirement obligations (ARO), a legal obligation associated with the retirement of its operations. According to the National Observer, by January 2019, there were about "80,000 inactive wells around Alberta".
Armit Meadows Ecological Reserve is an ecological reserve located in Porcupine Provincial Forest, Manitoba, Canada. It was established in 2015 under the Manitoba Ecological Reserves Act. It is 2.63 square kilometres (1.02 sq mi) in size.
Coal in Alberta is found in the Coalspur Formation in the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin in the foothills of southwestern Alberta. The Coalspur Formation, which has large quantities of high-quality coal, runs from south of the Wapiti River to the North Saskatchewan River. The Coalspur coal zone is about 120 metres (390 ft) to 200 metres (660 ft) thick.
