Production & Processing

Canada is one of the few countries that produces more oil and natural gas than it consumes. Canada's oil and natural gas resources are right across the country, in 12 of 13 provinces and territories. Although most of Canada's crude oil production comes from western Canada, 11 per cent is produced from Atlantic Canada. Canada is a world leader in applying technological advances in production and processing. Canadian production and exports in 2010 amounted to:

• Crude oil: 450 453 cubic metres of production per day and exports of 309 224 cubic metres per day.
• Natural gas: 413 million cubic metres of production per day and 253 million cubic metres of exports per day.
• Sulphur: 5.7 million tonnes of production and 5.3 million tonnes of exports with and inventory of 12.1 million tonnes.
• Canada was the largest exporter of crude oil to the United States in 2010.

Canada is a world leader in applying technological advances in production and processing and has developed advanced technologies for recovering and handling heavy oil, bitumen, ultra sour gas and sulphur. All of these technologies must accommodate extremely cold weather, severely corrosive production and remote locations. Areas of current development include:

• CO₂ sequestration
• steam stimulation
• steam-assisted gravity drainage (SAGD)
• oil sands surface mining
• bitumen separation and upgrading
• hydraulic oil sands transport
• manufacture of custom-designed and modular processing plants
• sour gas production and processing
• sulphur recovery, storage and transportation
• advanced well completions - all variations
• polyethylene, polystyrene and other derivatives technologies

Production & Processing - Resource Center