Oil and gas: Canada’s richest natural resource

From the Canadian Energy Centre

Energy assets valued at more than $40,000 per Canadian in 2022, StatsCan data shows

The value of Canada’s energy resources is more than 75 times greater than the country’s other natural resources combined, according to new data from Statistics Canada.

Led by the oil sands, Canada’s oil, gas and coal assets were worth $1.6 trillion in 2022 – or about $41,000 per Canadian.

That compares to $907 billion (about $23,000 per Canadian) for forest timber and minerals like potash, iron and copper.

The oil sands in Alberta contributed one-third of all Canada’s natural resource value, or about $860 billion.

“Energy resources are Canada’s top natural wealth contributor in 2022,” Statistics Canada reported.

In 2022, energy products were also Canada’s largest export, valued at nearly $230 billion. Canada’s second-largest export, consumer goods, followed at $84 billion.

World demand for oil and gas continues to rise. In 2022, global oil demand averaged a record 99.8 million barrels per day, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA).

The final data is not yet in for 2023, but in December the IEA affirmed the world is on track for another record, to reach 101.7 million barrels per day.

Meanwhile, work to reduce emissions is accelerating.

In Canada, emissions from so-called “conventional” (non-oil sands) oil production decreased by 24 per cent between 2019 and 2021, according to Environment and Climate Change Canada.

And Alberta oil and gas producers are ahead of schedule reducing methane emissions, achieving the target of a 45 per cent reduction from 2014 levels three years before the 2025 target.

In the oil sands, emissions did not go up in 2022 despite rising production, according to S&P Global. Oil sands emissions are now expected to start declining before 2025.

Through the Pathways Alliance, oil sands producers have jointly set the target to reach net zero emissions from operations by 2050, anchored by one of the world’s largest carbon capture and storage (CCS) projects, to be operational by 2030.

So far, the six companies in the alliance have spent $1.8 billion to advance this plan.

Related Topics:#Canada'sRichestNaturalResource #CanadaOilAndGas #CanadianEnergyCentre #DeborahJaremko #EnergyAssets feature

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World’s largest AI chip builder Taiwan wants Canadian LNG

Published on December 19, 2024

Todayville

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company’s campus in Nanjing, China

From the Canadian Energy Centre

By Deborah Jaremko

Canada inches away from first large-scale LNG exports

The world’s leading producer of semiconductor chips wants access to Canadian energy as demand for artificial intelligence (AI) rapidly advances.

Specifically, Canadian liquefied natural gas (LNG).

The Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) produces at least 90 per cent of advanced chips in the global market, powering tech giants like Apple and Nvidia.

Taiwanese companies together produce more than 60 per cent of chips used around the world.

That takes a lot of electricity – so much that TSMC alone is on track to consume nearly one-quarter of Taiwan’s energy demand by 2030, according to S&P Global.

“We are coming to the age of AI, and that is consuming more electricity demand than before,” said Harry Tseng, Taiwan’s representative in Canada, in a webcast hosted by Energy for a Secure Future.

According to Taiwan’s Energy Administration, today coal (42 per cent), natural gas (40 per cent), renewables (9.5 per cent) and nuclear (6.3 per cent), primarily supply the country’s electricity.

The government is working to phase out both nuclear energy and coal-fired power.

“We are trying to diversify the sources of power supply. We are looking at Canada and hoping that your natural gas, LNG, can help us,” Tseng said.

Canada is inches away from its first large-scale LNG exports, expected mainly to travel to Asia.

The Coastal GasLink pipeline connecting LNG Canada is now officially in commercial service, and the terminal’s owners are ramping up natural gas production to record rates, according to RBN Energy.

RBN analyst Martin King expects the first shipments to leave LNG Canada by early next year, setting up for commercial operations in mid-2025.

Canadian Energy Centre

Report: Oil sands, Montney growth key to meet rising world energy demand

Published on December 4, 2024

Todayville

Cenovus Energy’s Sunrise oil sands project in northern Alberta

From the Canadian Energy Centre

By Will Gibson

‘Canada continues to be resource-rich and competes very well against major U.S. resource bases’

A new report on North American energy highlights the important role that Canada’s oil sands and Montney natural gas resources play in supplying growing global energy demand.

In its annual North American supply outlook, Calgary-based Enverus Intelligence Research (a subsidiary of Enverus, which is headquartered in Texas and also operates in Europe and Asia) forecasts that by 2030, the world will require an additional seven million barrels per day (bbl/d) of oil and another 40 billion cubic feet per day (bcf/d) of natural gas.

“North America is one of the few regions where we’ve seen meaningful growth in the past 20 years,” said Enverus supply forecasting analyst Alex Ljubojevic.

Since 2005, North America has added 15 million bbl/d of liquid hydrocarbons and 50 bcf/d of gas production to the global market.

Enverus projects that by the end of this decade, that could grow by a further two million bbl/d of liquids and 15 bcf/d of natural gas if the oil benchmark WTI stays between US$70 and $80 per barrel and the natural gas benchmark Henry Hub stays between US$3.50 and $4 per million British thermal unit.

Ljubojevic said the oil sands in Alberta and the Montney play straddling Alberta and B.C.’s northern boarder are key assets because of their low cost structures and long-life resource inventories.

“Canada continues to be resource-rich and competes very well against major U.S. resource bases. Both the Montney and oil sands have comparable costs versus key U.S. basins such as the Permian,” he said.

“In the Montney, wells are being drilled longer and faster. In the oil sands, the big build outs of infrastructure have taken place. The companies are now fine-tuning those operations, making small improvements year-on-year [and] operators have continued to reduce their operating costs. Investment dollars will always flow to the lowest cost plays,” he said.

“Are the Montney and oil sands globally significant? Yes, and we expect that will continue to be the case moving forward.”