NORTHWEST CANADA'S HYDROCARBON RESOURCES
Mike Priaro, P. Eng.
First uploaded April 7, 2019
In fact, Northwest Canada's oil resources are larger than Venezuela's
and Saudi Arabia's combined.
I am fed up with hearing and reading everywhere that Canada’s oil reserves are second- or third-largest after Venezuela and Saudi Arabia.
I created this compilation of the hydrocarbon resources of northwest Canada two years ago. In view of recent information downgrading production rates and remaining reserves volumes from Saudi Arabia’s Ghawar field, this is even more timely and relevant information.
The reader should note the difference between resources—the oil, gas liquids, and natural gas remaining in-place as tabled below—and the various definitions of reserves as either technically- or economically-recoverable volumes from the remaining in-place resources.
In comparison, Venezuela’s oil resource is 1,300 billion bbl according to the U.S. Geological Survey while Saudi Arabia’s oil resource is 716 billion bbl according to Saudi Arabia and OPEC—but likely significantly less according to most outside experts.
Note that at least another half-dozen prospective shale formations are less completely evaluated in Alberta, British Columbia, and Northwest Territories and are not included.
Of course resource exploration and development in Canada’s Northwest Territories, Yukon Territory, Mackenzie Delta, Beaufort Sea, and Arctic Islands is in its infancy. For example, there are as-yet-unmeasured bitumen sands deposits indicated by a sixty-mile long outcrop on Melville Island in Canada’s Arctic.
And, there has not yet been a systematic, large-scale geological, geophysical, and borehole evaluation of the bitumen resource in Saskatchewan which is much greater than tabled here.
Finally, the hydrocarbon resources of Canada’s Eastern Arctic, Hudson Bay, the St. Lawrence Valley, River and Gulf, or of offshore Eastern Canada have not been included in this table.
Considering only Alberta’s oil resources, I assign average recovery factors as follows to come up with remaining technically-recoverable reserves:
Economically-recoverable reserves constantly change as oil prices fluctuate. Saudi Arabia’s low-cost, but depleting, oil reserves are least subject to oil price fluctuations, while Alberta’s higher cost, but much larger and longer-lived, reserves are probably most subject to oil price fluctuations.
Mike Priaro, P. Eng.
Calgary
403-281-2156
SOURCES OF DATA
1. Alberta Energy Regulator, ST98-2015: Alberta’s Energy Reserves 2014 and Supply/Demand Outlook 2015–2024 http://www.aer.ca/documents/sts/ST98/ST98-2015.pdf
2. Energy Resources Conservation Board/Alberta Geological Survey, Summary of Alberta’s Shale- and Siltstone-Hosted Hydrocarbons
3. National Energy Board, Tight Oil Developments in the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin, https://www.neb-one.gc.ca/nrg/sttstc/crdlndptrlmprdct/rprt/tghtdvlpmntwcsb2011/tghtdvlpmntwcsb2011-eng.pdf
4. Government of Saskatchewan, Evaluation of Saskatchewan’s Heavy Oil Reserves, http://publications.gov.sk.ca/documents/310/38724-Eval_Sask_Heavy_Oil.pdf
5. Oilsands Quest Inc., http://www.newswire.ca/news-releases/oilsands-quest-announces-reporting-of-the-independent-estimate-of-discovered-resources-at-axe-lake-provides-activity-update-4587161.html ;
6. National Energy Board, The Ultimate Potential for Unconventional Petroleum from the Bakken Formation of Saskatchewan, http://www.neb-one.gc.ca/nrg/sttstc/crdlndptrlmprdct/rprt/2015bkkn/2015bkkn-eng.pdf
7. Saskatchewan Government, http://www.economy.gov.sk.ca/5yr-oil-summaryhttp://www.economy.gov.sk.ca/5yr-gas-summary
8. NEB et al, The Ultimate potential for Unconventional Petroleum from the Montney Formation of British Columbia and Alberta, http://www2.gov.bc.ca/assets/gov/farming-natural-resources-and-industry/natural-gas-oil/petroleum-geoscience/oil-gas-reports/og_report_2013-1_montney_assessment.pdf
9. National Energy Board, Ultimate Potential for Unconventional Natural Gas in Northeastern British Columbia’s Horn River Basin,
10. Hydrocarbon and By-Product Reserves in British Columbia, 2013, https://www.bcogc.ca/node/12346/download
11. The Unconventional Gas Resources of Mississippian-Devonian Shales in the Liard Basin of British Columbia, the Northwest Territories, and Yukon, March 2016, https://www.neb-one.gc.ca/nrg/sttstc/ntrlgs/rprt/ltmtptntlbcnwtkn2016/index-eng.html
12. An Assessment of the Unconventional Petroleum Resources of the Bluefish Shale and the Canol Shale in the Northwest Territories https://www.neb-one.gc.ca/nrg/sttstc/crdlndptrlmprdct/rprt/2015shlnt/index-eng.html
13. Assessment of Discovered Conventional Petroleum Resources in the Northwest Territories and Beaufort Sea, November, 2014. https://www.neb-one.gc.ca/nrth/pblctn/2014ptrlmrsrc/2014ptrlmrsrc-eng.pdf
