Exploration & Development in Canada

Canada is the world's 3rd largest producer of natural gas and 7th largest producer of crude oil. Aggressive exploration and development play an important role in North America's energy supply - and only half of Canada's prospective conventional oil and gas resource base has been produced.

Both onshore and offshore, Canadian companies deal with the most extreme conditions on earth — frigid Arctic temperatures, icebergs, tundra, muskeg and mountain terrain. Such rugged conditions have led Canadian companies to develop advanced equipment, technologies and processes such as:

  • Topographic and communications technologies for remote and inhospitable terrain
  • Specialized vehicles for moving equipment and supplies over difficult terrain
  • Rig transportation systems that are ranked first in the world for speed, expertise and safety
  • Multi–functional marine vessels capable of operating in harsh weather during subsea construction, laying of pipelines or cables, and as support for divers

Enhanced recovery technologies have enabled Canadian companies to substantially increase recoveries of:

  • crude oil (sweet, sour, heavy and ultra viscous)
  • natural gas (sweet, sour, ultra sour)
  • natural gas liquids
  • bitumen (oil sands surface mining and well production)

Petroleum Investments

Canadian companies invest heavily in exploration, development and field equipment:

  • More than $49 billion was spent in 2007 — $16 billion for oil sands development, and the remainder in conventional oil and gas, primarily in Western Canada.
  • The Atlantic offshore could see $1.5 to $2 billion spent annually for exploration and development.
  • Close to $80 billion in new oil sands projects is forecast from 2005 to 2010.

Upstream Technology

In the upstream sector, Canada offers industry–leading technologies such as:

  • oil sands and heavy oil extraction
  • steam assisted gravity drainage (SAGD)
  • light oil recovery
  • ocean geomatics
  • cold ocean–ice engineering
  • 3–D and 4–D seismic
  • software, logging and geo–steering
  • advanced structural analysis techniques
  • underwater moorings integrity verification
  • telecommunications/data transmission

Drilling Expertise

Canada's advanced drilling technologies can tackle hard–to–access reservoirs and difficult production conditions. Close to 22 000 wells were drilled in 2007 — 11% were horizontal and 20% were directional.

Canada's leading drilling technologies include:

  • top drive drilling applications
  • casing and coiled tubing drilling
  • underbalanced, horizontal and directional drilling
  • multiple–leg laterals
  • lightweight fibreglass sucker rods
  • measurement and logging while drilling
  • offshore drilling modules and large drilling platforms
  • automated service rigs
  • a self–contained unit that can drill, do completions and workovers