Oil 

The Resource: Crude Oil

Conventional oil is either light or heavy. Heavy refers to oil with a thick consistency that does not flow easily.

Light oil can flow naturally to the surface or is extracted from the ground using pumpjacks. Pumpjacks are also used to remove heavy oil from the ground.

Conventional oil is produced on land and offshore.

In Western Canada, oil is transported by pipelines from the production facility to refineries where it is upgraded into products like gasoline, heating oil and jet fuel. Offshore Newfoundland and Labrador transport crude oil to markets by tanker.

Read more about offshore drilling Read more about Canada’s oil resources

The Issues: Meeting the World's Energy Needs

Energy Demand

Canada’s oil industry produces over 2.6 million barrels of oil per day and is part of the global crude oil market. Crude oil is one of the most actively traded commodities in the world. Because of this, oil prices change daily in response to changing conditions that affect supply and demand.

Across the world, the demand for oil has gone up steadily over the past 20 years, growing from 60 million barrels per day to 88 million. A lot of this growth is due to oil demand in emerging economies like China and India.

Find out more about Canada’s oil resources

Where We’re Getting Our Energy

Many of the world’s sources of conventional oil are in decline, and Canada is no exception. The conventional oil reservoirs that were abundant and easy to find 30 years ago are harder to locate and more costly to develop. However, Canada is fortunate to have sources of unconventional oil in the oil sands. This oil is more remote and expensive to produce, and needs to be processed. This creates more greenhouse gases than conventional oil production.

CAPP Crude Oil Pipeline & Refinery Map

A pumpjack in Southern Alberta