Canada Oil and Natural Gas Production

Canada’s oil and natural gas industry is active in 12 of 13 provinces and territories. Canada is the fourth largest producer of oil in the world and is the sixth largest producer of natural gas in the world.

Canada’s oil and natural gas production contributes billions of dollars to the country’s GDP and creates thousands of jobs each year. Explore the diversity of Canada’s oil and natural gas industries by province.

British Columbia

British Columbia is Canada’s second largest natural gas producer, home to the Horn River and Montney natural gas basins. Natural gas is an important part of B.C.’s clean energy strategy. Oil reserves in British Columbia are located in the northeast area of the province.

  • $632 million – estimated payments industry made in royalties and crown land sales for the use of British Columbia’s oil and gas resources in fiscal 2021/22
  • $2.04 billion – in industry spending on exploration and development in 2020.

Oil Production

  • 12,000 – barrels per day of crude oil produced in 2021.

Natural Gas in British Columbia

  • 5.75 billion – cubic feet per day of natural gas produced in 2021.
  • An estimated 532 trillion cubic feet of ultimate marketable natural gas resources, enough to last 300-plus years at current demand levels.

Alberta

Alberta is Canada’s largest oil and natural gas producer and is home to vast deposits of both resources. Alberta oil production makes up about 80% of Canada’s total oil production. Alberta’s oil sands are located in the northern area of the province, while natural gas is found throughout the province.

  • 22% – of the Government of Alberta’s total estimated revenue came from its oil and gas resources for fiscal year 2021/22.
  • $7.3 billion – in capital spending in the oil sands in 2020.
  • $66 billion – in payments to the provincial government over the last 10 years.

Oil Production

  • 161.7 billion barrels of oil reserves available, of which 160 billion barrels is oil sands.
  • 437,000 – barrels per day of conventional oil produced in 2019.
  • 2.84 million – barrels per day produced from the oil sands in 2021.

Natural Gas in Alberta

  • 213 trillion cubic feet (tcf) of natural gas initial established reserves, of which 187 tcf has been produced.
  • 10.1 billion cubic feet (bcf) per day was produced in 2021.
  • 10,000 direct or indirect jobs supported by natural gas industry.

Saskatchewan

Saskatchewan is the second largest oil producer in Canada. Oil and natural gas are primarily found in the northwest, west central and southern parts of the province. Saskatchewan is home to a significant portion of the Bakken Formation, one of the largest conventional oil plays in North America.

  • $911 million – estimated payments to the government from the oil and gas industry for the 2021/22 fiscal year.
  • $2 billion – in industry spending on exploration and development in 2018.

Saskatchewan Oil Production

  • 444,200 – barrels per day in oil production in 2021.
  • 1.2 billion – barrels of remaining crude oil reserves at 2020.

Natural Gas in Saskatchewan

  • 1.8 Tcf – remaining marketable natural gas reserves at 2020.

Manitoba

With the development of the Sinclair field in the province’s southwest, Manitoba has increased its crude oil production almost four-fold since 2000, and is producing more than 40,000 barrels per day. Oil is found in the southwest part of Manitoba, along the northeastern flank of the Williston Basin. There is currently no natural gas production in Manitoba.

  • $0.14 billion – in industry spending on exploration and development in 2020.

Manitoba Oil Production

  • 37 thousand – barrels per day oil production in 2021.

Ontario

Although Ontario is not a significant producer of petroleum, the province has just over 2,300 producing oil and gas wells. Ontario’s manufacturing sector is an important supplier of goods and services for Canada’s oil and natural gas industry.

  • $6.5 billion – amount spent by oil sands sector on goods and services in Ontario in 2017-2019.
  • 1,300 – estimated number of companies from across Ontario that directly supply Canada’s oil sands with goods and services.

Ontario Oil and Natural Gas

  • 2,327 – number of producing oil and natural gas wells in Ontario in 2018.
  • 394,700 – number of barrels per day Ontario’s refineries are capable of producing, accounting for 20% of Canadian refining capacity.

Québec

Québec has an abundance of undeveloped natural gas resources, most of it concentrated along the southern flank of the St. Lawrence River in the province’s portion of the Utica shale formation. It is also home to refineries that process Canadian oil and a large number of companies that supply goods and services to the oil sands sector. 

  • Over 580 – estimated number of companies in Québec that directly supply the oil sands industry with goods and services.

Québec Oil Production

  • 372,000 barrels per day – Québec’s refining capacity.

Natural Gas in Québec

  • 100 years – how long Quebec could supply itself with its own natural gas.

Newfoundland and Labrador

Newfoundland and Labrador currently has four producing offshore oil projects and the offshore is also the focus of significant exploration activity. The Bay du Nord project was approved by the Federal government in 2021. 

  • $1.5 billion – in industry spending on exploration and development in 2020.
  • $25 billion – estimated royalty payments to the province from offshore oil production between 2000-2021.
  • $1.1 billion – estimated royalties to the province from offshore oil production in 2021/22.

Oil Production

  • 258,000 – barrels per day of oil produced in 2021.

New Brunswick

New Brunswick is home to the Frederick Brook Shale, which contains natural gas reserves and roughly stretches across the southeastern part of the province and is part of the Maritimes Basin. 

New Brunswick Natural Gas

  • 0.5 million – cubic feet/day in natural gas production in 2021.
  • 32 – the total number of natural gas wells producing.
  • 11 – the number of producing oil wells.

Nova Scotia

Nova Scotia’s first offshore exploration well was drilled in 1967, with the first offshore discovery at Sable Island in 1971. To date, about 127 exploration wells have been drilled offshore Nova Scotia, yielding 23 significant discoveries. 

Nova Scotia currently has no producing natural gas projects.

  • $6.1 billion – in capital spending by the industry over the past 20 years.
  • $1.9 billion – estimated royalty payments to the province from offshore production between 2000 – 2018.

Oil Production

  • 8 billion – barrels of oil in resource potential.

Natural Gas

  • 120 trillion – cubic feet of natural gas in offshore resource potential.

Prince Edward Island

PEI’s oil and natural gas industry is still in its infancy. More than one million acres of land are under active exploration for oil and natural resources. There have been no exploration wells drilled in PEI since 2003.

Northern Canada

The Northwest Territories, Nunavut and Yukon have large, untapped resources of crude oil and natural gas. The oil and natural gas industry has acquired offshore oil and gas interests and there are some active exploration programs in the Northwest Territories and Yukon.

Oil Production

  • 6,000 – barrels of conventional oil produced per day in the Territories in 2021.

Natural Gas Production

  • 6 million – cubic feet per day of natural gas production in 2021.