Canadian Energy Centre
Lessons from rising tide of Indigenous ownership in Canadian oil and gas shared in Norway

Indigenous Resource Network executive director John Desjarlais (right) and Norwegian prime minister Jonas Gahr Støre speak at the Arctic Frontiers Conference in Tromsø, Norway on Wednesday, Jan. 31, 2024. Photo courtesy Indigenous Resource Network.
From the Canadian Energy Centre
Since 2022, more than 75 First Nations and Métis communities in Alberta and British Columbia have agreed to ownership stakes in energy projects including the Coastal GasLink pipeline and major oil sands transportation networks.
The city of Tromsø, Norway, north of the Arctic Circle, is known as one of the best places in the world to see the northern lights.
For John Desjarlais, it was also a place to share lessons from the growing leadership of Indigenous communities in Canadian resource development projects.
In late January, Desjarlais – executive director of the Indigenous Resource Network – attended the Arctic Frontiers Conference in Tromsø, speaking on a panel with leaders including Norwegian prime minister Jonas Gahr Støre.
“Sharing some of the examples across borders is important. It reflects Indigenous peoples’ values on kinship and reciprocity,” says Desjarlais, a professional engineer and member of the Nehinaw Cree Métis community.
Indigenous people around the world including the Sami in northern Norway face similar socio-economic challenges to Indigenous communities in Canada, Desjarlais says.
“They want to develop on their own terms. We want to share those tips on how we all move forward,” he says.
“It is good business to partner with Indigenous partners. We’re starting to recognize not only the social value of reconciliation but also the business value. I think that’s happening much more quickly and progressively in Canada and that is being noted by our international allies.”
From liquefied natural gas (LNG) export terminals to oil and gas pipelines, natural gas-fired power plants and carbon capture and storage (CCS) projects to reduce emissions, more Indigenous communities in Canada are taking on a leadership role.
Since 2022, more than 75 First Nations and Métis communities in Alberta and British Columbia have agreed to ownership stakes in energy projects including the Coastal GasLink pipeline and major oil sands transportation networks.
“Those communities are moving forward in leaps and bounds in terms of their social impact,” Desjarlais says.
Each community can take their own approach to how invest the funds from their participation in resource projects, according to Justin Bourque, president of Athabasca Indigenous Investments.
The company represents 23 Indigenous communities in Alberta that became approximately 12 per cent owners of Enbridge oil sands pipelines in 2022.
“The different partners have done what works for their particular community and circumstance,” Bourque told CEC following the one-year anniversary of the deal.
“[Some] have used the funds disbursed to them to pay for more teachers or educational opportunities and building out their social infrastructure in their communities. One community is building a strategy around improving the quality of life for the elderly. Others have used the money to acquire lands or build infrastructure for their communities.”
Desjarlais says it is important to share these stories with Canada’s global partners.
“We don’t feed just national markets, we feed international markets. It’s important to showcase how we do things; that there is some best practice that is happening here, that we deliver responsible resource development,” he says.
“We are in a lot of different places to inspire that confidence that we can develop at the speed and the rate that the world needs and in line with sustainability.”
Alberta
The beauty of economic corridors: Inside Alberta’s work to link products with new markets

From the Canadian Energy Centre
Q&A with Devin Dreeshen, Minister of Transport and Economic Corridors
CEC: How have recent developments impacted Alberta’s ability to expand trade routes and access new markets for energy and natural resources?
Dreeshen: With the U.S. trade dispute going on right now, it’s great to see that other provinces and the federal government are taking an interest in our east, west and northern trade routes, something that we in Alberta have been advocating for a long time.
We signed agreements with Saskatchewan and Manitoba to have an economic corridor to stretch across the prairies, as well as a recent agreement with the Northwest Territories to go north. With the leadership of Premier Danielle Smith, she’s been working on a BC, prairie and three northern territories economic corridor agreement with pretty much the entire western and northern block of Canada.
There has been a tremendous amount of work trying to get Alberta products to market and to make sure we can build big projects in Canada again.
CEC: Which infrastructure projects, whether pipeline, rail or port expansions, do you see as the most viable for improving Alberta’s global market access?
Dreeshen: We look at everything. Obviously, pipelines are the safest way to transport oil and gas, but also rail is part of the mix of getting over four million barrels per day to markets around the world.
The beauty of economic corridors is that it’s a swath of land that can have any type of utility in it, whether it be a roadway, railway, pipeline or a utility line. When you have all the environmental permits that are approved in a timely manner, and you have that designated swath of land, it politically de-risks any type of project.
CEC: A key focus of your ministry has been expanding trade corridors, including an agreement with Saskatchewan and Manitoba to explore access to Hudson’s Bay. Is there any interest from industry in developing this corridor further?
Dreeshen: There’s been lots of talk [about] Hudson Bay, a trade corridor with rail and port access. We’ve seen some improvements to go to Churchill, but also an interest in the Nelson River.
We’re starting to see more confidence in the private sector and industry wanting to build these projects. It’s great that governments can get together and work on a common goal to build things here in Canada.
CEC: What is your vision for Alberta’s future as a leader in global trade, and how do economic corridors fit into that strategy?
Dreeshen: Premier Smith has talked about C-69 being repealed by the federal government [and] the reversal of the West Coast tanker ban, which targets Alberta energy going west out of the Pacific.
There’s a lot of work that needs to be done on the federal side. Alberta has been doing a lot of the heavy lifting when it comes to economic corridors.
We’ve asked the federal government if they could develop an economic corridor agency. We want to make sure that the federal government can come to the table, work with provinces [and] work with First Nations across this country to make sure that we can see these projects being built again here in Canada.
Alberta
Alberta’s massive oil and gas reserves keep growing – here’s why

From the Canadian Energy Centre
Q&A with Mike Verney, executive vice-president, McDaniel & Associates
New analysis commissioned by the Alberta Energy Regulator has increased the province’s natural gas reserves by 440 per cent, bumping Canada into the global top 10.
Alberta’s oil reserves – already fourth in the world – also increased by seven billion barrels.
The report was conducted by Calgary-based consultancy McDaniel & Associates. Executive vice-president Mike Verney explains what it means.
CEC: What are “reserves” and why do they matter?
Verney: Reserves are commercial quantities of oil and gas to be recovered in the future. They are key indicators of future production potential.
For companies, that’s a way of representing the future value of their operations. And for countries, it’s important to showcase the runway they have in terms of the future of their oil and gas.
Some countries that have exploited a lot of their resource in the past have low reserves remaining. Canada is in a position where we still have a lot of meat on the bone in terms of those remaining quantities.
CEC: How long has it been since Alberta’s oil and gas reserves were comprehensively assessed?
Verney: Our understanding is the last fully comprehensive review was over a decade ago.
CEC: Does improvement in technology and innovation increase reserves?
Verney: Technological advancements and innovation play a crucial role in increasing reserves. New technologies such as advanced drilling techniques (e.g., hydraulic fracturing, horizontal drilling), enhanced seismic imaging and improved extraction methods enable companies to discover and access previously inaccessible reserves.
As these reserves get developed, the evolution of technology helps companies develop them better and better every year.
CEC: Why have Alberta’s natural gas reserves increased?
Verney: Most importantly, hydraulic fracturing has unlocked material volume, and that’s one of the principal reasons why the new gas estimate is so much higher than what it was in the past.
The performance of the wells that are being drilled has also gotten better since the last comprehensive study.
The Montney competes with every American tight oil and gas play, so we’re recognizing the future potential of that with the gas reserves that are being assigned.
In addition, operators continue to expand the footprint of the Alberta Deep Basin.
CEC: Why have Alberta’s oil reserves increased?
Verney: We discovered over two billion barrels of oil reserves associated with multilateral wells, which is a new technology. In a multilateral well, you drill one vertical well to get to the zone and then once you hit the zone you drill multiple legs off of that one vertical spot. It has been a very positive game-changer.
Performance in the oil sands since the last comprehensive update has also gone better than expected. We’ve got 22 thermal oil sands projects that are operating, and in general, expectations in terms of recovery are higher than they were a decade ago.
Oil sands production has grown substantially in the past decade, up 70 per cent, from two million to 3.4 million barrels per day. The growth of several projects has increased confidence in the commercial viability of developing additional lands.
CEC: What are the implications of Alberta’s reserves in terms of the province’s position as a world energy supplier?
Verney: We’re seeing LNG take off in the United States, and we’re seeing lots of demand from data centers. Our estimate is that North America will need at least 30 billion cubic feet per day of more gas supply in the next few years, based on everything that’s been announced. That is a very material number, considering the United States’ total natural gas production is a little over 100 billion cubic feet per day.
In terms of oil, since the shale revolution in 2008 there’s been massive growth from North America, and the rest of the world hasn’t grown oil production. We’re now seeing that the tight plays in the U.S. aren’t infinite and are showing signs of plateauing.
Specifically, when we look at the United States’ largest oil play, the Permian, it has essentially been flat at 5.5 million barrels per day since December 2023. Flat production from the Permian is contrary to the previous decade, where we saw tight oil production grow by half a million barrels per day per year.
Oil demand has gone up by about a million barrels a day per year for the past several decades, and at this point we do expect that to continue, at the very least in the near term.
Given the growing demand for oil and the stagnation in supply growth since the shale revolution, it’s expected that Alberta’s oil sands reserves will become increasingly critical. As global oil demand continues to rise, and with limited growth in production from other sources, oil sands reserves will be relied upon more heavily.
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