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The economy of Alberta is the sum of all economic activity in Alberta, Canada's fourth largest province by population. Alberta's GDP in 2018 was CDN$338.2 billion.
The Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP), with its head office in Calgary, Alberta, is a lobby group that represents the upstream Canadian oil and natural gas industry. CAPP's members produce "90% of Canada's natural gas and crude oil" and "are an important part of a national industry with revenues of about $100 billion-a-year ."
Alberta separatism comprises a series of 20th- and 21st-century movements advocating the secession of the province of Alberta from Canada, either by joining the United States, forming an independent nation or by creating a new union with one or more of Canada's western provinces. The main issues driving separatist sentiment have been the perceived power disparity relative to Ottawa and other provinces, historical grievances with the federal government dating back to the unrealized Province of Buffalo, a sense of distinctiveness with regards to Alberta's unique cultural and political identity, and Canadian fiscal policy, particularly as it pertains to the energy industry.
Petroleum production in Canada is a major industry which is important to the overall 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 2019 it produced an average of 750,000 cubic metres per day (4.7 Mbbl/d) of crude oil and equivalent. Of that amount, 64% was upgraded from unconventional oil sands, and the remainder light crude oil, heavy crude oil and natural-gas condensate. Most of the Canadian petroleum production is exported, approximately 600,000 cubic metres per day (3.8 Mbbl/d) 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.
Canada's natural gas liquids industry dates back to the discovery of wet natural gas at Turner Valley, Alberta in 1914. The gas was less important than the natural gasoline - "skunk gas" it was called, because of its distinctive odour - that early producers extracted from it. That natural gas liquid (NGL) could be poured directly into an automobile's fuel tank.
The Canadian petroleum industry arose in parallel with that of the United States. Because of Canada's unique geography, geology, resources and patterns of settlement, however, it developed in different ways. The evolution of the petroleum sector has been a key factor in the history of Canada, and helps illustrate how the country became quite distinct from her neighbour to the south.
Natural gas has been used almost as long as crude oil in Canada, but its commercial development was not as rapid. This is because of special properties of this energy commodity: it is a gas, and it frequently contains impurities. The technical challenges involved to first process and then pipe it to market are therefore considerable. Furthermore, the costs of pipeline building make the whole enterprise capital intensive, requiring both money and engineering expertise, and large enough markets to make the business profitable.
Obsidian Energy Ltd. is a mid-sized Canadian oil and natural gas production company based in Calgary, Alberta.
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 development across Western Canada. The discovery transformed the Alberta economy; oil and gas supplanted farming as the primary industry and resulted in the province becoming one of the richest in the country. Nationally, the discovery allowed Canada to become self-sufficient within a decade and ultimately a major exporter of oil.
Bitumount is an abandoned industrial site on the east bank of the Athabasca River about 90 kilometres (60 mi) north of Fort McMurray in northeastern Alberta, Canada. Between 1925 and the 1950s, it was the site of early attempts to extract bitumen from the Athabasca oil sands that contributed to the development of commercially viable extraction processes. The site closed permanently in 1958. Some of the structures at Bitumont were declared Provincial Historic Resources in 1974. As of 2017, the buildings are deteriorating.
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 Cenovus), Canadian Natural Resources, Petro-Canada (now Suncor) and Talisman Energy (now Repsol Oil & Gas Canada). It is composed mostly of bitumen blended with sweet synthetic and condensate diluents and 21 existing streams of both conventional and unconventional Alberta heavy crude oils at the large Husky Midstream General Partnership terminal in Hardisty, Alberta. Western Canadian Select—the benchmark for heavy, acidic (TAN <1.1) crudes—is one of many petroleum products from the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin oil sands. Calgary-based Husky Energy, now a subsidiary of Cenovus, had joined the initial four founders in 2015.
The Alberta Energy Regulator (AER) is a Canadian crown corporation responsible for regulating the development of energy resources in Alberta. Headquartered 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 provide safe, efficient, orderly, and environmentally responsible development of energy resources in the province.
The Canada West Foundation is a non-partisan think tank based in Calgary, Alberta. It primarily conducts research on issues of concern in British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba, but also on issues of national significance.
Orphan wells in Alberta, Canada are inactive oil or gas well sites that have no solvent owner that can be held legally or financially accountable for the decommissioning and reclamation obligations to ensure public safety and to address environmental liabilities.
Pipelines in Canada are important components of energy infrastructure in Canada as the majority of natural gas and oil deposits are located in landlocked Alberta and need to be transported to ports or terminals to access larger markets.
Andrew Leach is a Canadian energy and environmental economist and a contributing writer to a number of Canadian news outlets including The Globe and Mail, and Maclean's. His research areas span energy and environmental economics—including topics such as oil sands regulation, clean energy innovations, with a specific focus on climate change policies.
The Canadian Energy Centre Limited (CEC), also commonly called the "Energy War Room", is an Alberta provincial corporation mandated to promote Alberta's energy industry and rebut "domestic and foreign-funded campaigns against Canada's oil and gas industry". The creation of an organization to promote Alberta's oil and gas industries was a campaign promise by United Conservative Party leader Jason Kenney during the 2019 Alberta general election. After winning a majority of seats in the election, Kenney's government inaugurated the CEC with a $2.84 million budget in December 2019. The CEC originally had an annual budget of CA$30 million which was decreased to $CA12 million. The CEC has been the subject of several controversies since its establishment, including accusations of plagiarizing logo designs. The CEC attracted widespread media attention when it launched a campaign against the Netflix animated children's movie Bigfoot Family because it cast Alberta's oil and gas industry in a negative light.
Below is a brief timeline covering the history of the petroleum industry Alberta and its predecessor states.
Modern Miracle Network (MMN) is a Canadian fossil fuel advocacy organization that was incorporated in 2016 by entrepreneur Michael Binnion, and operates out of the offices of Calgary, Alberta-based Questerre Energy. Binnion is chair of the Manning Foundation and a member of the board of governors of the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP).
Selected timeline related to orphan wells in Alberta, Canada is a list of events relevant to orphan wells in Alberta, Canada. Orphan wells are inactive oil or gas well sites that have no solvent owner that can be held legally or financially accountable for the decommissioning and reclamation obligations to ensure public safety and to address environmental liabilities.
References
- 1 2 3 4 5 Canada, Natural Resources (May 23, 2019). "Canadian Centre for Energy Information" . Retrieved December 30, 2019.
- 1 2 "Petroleum Communication Foundation fonds: Alberta On Record". Glenbow Museum. Retrieved December 30, 2019.
- ↑ Tait, Carrie (August 20, 2010). "Saving the oil sands". National Post . Calgary. ISSN 1486-8008 . Retrieved December 30, 2019.
- ↑ "How the launch of the Canadian Energy Information Centre could fill major gaps in energy data | National Observer" . Retrieved 2019-12-31.
- ↑ Bott, Robert (1993). Our Petroleum Challenge: Sustainability into the 21st Century. Petroleum Communication Foundation. p. 63. OCLC 630077209 . Retrieved December 30, 2019.
- ↑ Bott, Robert (1999). Our petroleum challenge: exploring Canada's oil and gas industry. Calgary: Petroleum Communication Foundation. p. 101. ISBN 1894348001. OCLC 237090031 . Retrieved December 30, 2019.The Calgary-based Petroleum Communication Foundation or Foundation published books from c.1992 to c.2001.
- ↑ Bott, Robert (2004). Our Petroleum Challenge: Sustainability into the 21st Century. Canadian Centre for Energy Information. p. 131.
- ↑ Bott, Robert (2009). Our Petroleum Challenge: Sustainability into the 21st Century (7 ed.). Canadian Centre for Energy Information. ISBN 978-1894348157. The seventh edition was co-authored with David M. Carson and Jan W. Henderson.
- ↑ McMillan, Tim (2017). The growing world will require more energy, in all forms (PDF) (Report). p. 12. Retrieved December 30, 2019.
Renewables and new alternative sources will increasingly supply a larger part of that energy mix. but the world is also going to need oil and natural gas for a long time."