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 Territories (NWT) to the north, and the U.S. state of Montana to the south. It is one of the only two landlocked provinces in Canada. The eastern part of the province is occupied by the Great Plains, while the western part borders the Rocky Mountains. The province has a predominantly continental climate but experiences quick temperature changes due to air aridity. Seasonal temperature swings are less pronounced in western Alberta due to occasional Chinook winds.
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.
Imperial Oil Limited 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 ownership stake in the company. It is a significant producer of crude oil, diluted bitumen and natural gas, Canada's major petroleum refiner, a key petrochemical producer and a national marketer with coast-to-coast supply and retail networks. It supplies Esso-brand service stations.
ATCO Ltd., operating as the ATCO Group, is a publicly-traded Canadian engineering, logistics and energy holding company based in Calgary, Alberta. ATCO's subsidiaries include electric utilities, natural gas production and distribution companies, and construction companies.
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. Enbridge's pipeline system is the longest in North America and the largest oil export pipeline network in the world. Its crude oil system consists of 28,661 kilometres of pipelines. Its 38,300 kilometre natural gas pipeline system connects multiple Canadian provinces, several US states, and the Gulf of Mexico. The company was formed by Imperial Oil in 1949 as the Interprovincial Pipe Line Company Limited to transport Alberta oil to refineries. Over time, it has grown through acquisition of other existing pipeline companies and the expansion of their projects. Between 2012 and 2021, Enbridge transported over 32 billion barrels of crude oil.
TC Energy Corporation is a major North American energy company, based in the TC Energy Tower building in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, that develops and operates energy infrastructure in Canada, the United States, and Mexico. The company operates three core businesses: Natural Gas Pipelines, Liquids Pipelines and Energy.
TransAlta Corporation is an electricity power generator and wholesale marketing company headquartered in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. It is a privately owned corporation and its shares are traded publicly. It operates 76 power plants in Canada, the United States, and Australia. TransAlta operates wind, hydro, natural gas, and coal power generation facilities. The company has been recognized for its leadership in sustainability by the Dow Jones Sustainability North America Index, the FTSE4Good Index, and the Jantzi Social Index. TransAlta is Canada's largest investor-owned renewable energy provider. The company is not without controversy as the Alberta Utility Commission ruled in 2015 that TransAlta manipulated the price of electricity when it took outages at its Alberta coal-fired generating units in late 2010 and early 2011.
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 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.
Enmax Corporation is a vertically integrated utility that generates and distributes electricity, natural gas, renewable energy, and value-added services to customers in Alberta, Canada.
Connacher Oil and Gas Limited is a Calgary-based exploration, development and production company active in the production and sale of bitumen in the Athabasca oil sands region. Connacher's shares used to trade on the Toronto Stock Exchange, but it was de-listed in 2016, after filing for insolvency.
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.
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.
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.
Murray D. Smith is a businessman and former provincial-level politician from Alberta, Canada. He served as a member of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta from 1993 until 2004 sitting with the governing Progressive Conservative caucus. During his time in office he served as a cabinet minister under the government of Ralph Klein serving various cabinet portfolios from 1994 to 2004.
Richard D. "Rick" Orman is a businessman and former Canadian politician. Orman was born in Calgary, Alberta in 1948 as a fourth generation Albertan. He studied at the University of Calgary before graduating with honours from Eastern Washington University in 1971. Orman served as a member of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta from 1986 to 1993. Since 1993, he has been active within the business community, both provincially and internationally.
Through the 1996 Electric Utilities Act the Alberta's deregulated electricity market began.
Francis Murray Patrick McMahon was a Canadian oilman best known as the founder of Pacific Petroleums and the Westcoast Transmission Company. Time magazine called him "The man who did the most to open up northwest Canada's wilderness—and convince oilmen of its treasures."
Canada has substantial potential for geothermal energy development. To date, development has all been for heating applications. Canada has 103,523 direct use installations as of 2013. There is currently no electricity being generated from geothermal sources in Canada although substantial potential exists in the Canadian Cordillera. The most advanced project exists as a test geothermal-electrical site at the Mount Meager massif in British Columbia, where a 100 MegaWatt (MW) facility could be developed. Potential for enhanced geothermal energy systems (EGS) exists throughout Canada. There are six geothermal power and two direct use projects listed with the Canadian Geothermal Energy Association.
The Alberta Electric System Operator (AESO) is the non-profit organization responsible for operating Alberta, Canada's power grid. AESO oversees the planning and operation of the Alberta Interconnected Electric System (AIES) in a "safe, reliable, and economical" manner. It is mandated by provincial legislation to act in the public interest and cannot own any transmission, distribution or generation assets.
$1.405 billion CAN (2018)