AM-04-47 Western Canadian Crude Oil Supply and Markets, 2003-2010

Description:

Western Canadian crude oil production and supply have demonstrated significant growth in recent years. The region’s conventional crude oil reserves and production have started to decline as the western sedimentary basin matures, however, a new source of production has emerged—crude oil extracted from western Canada’s vast oil sands. Annual average oil sands production has grown over 60 percent in the last five years from 568,000 to 920,000 barrels per day (bpd) in 2003. By the end of the decade, oil sands production is forecast to exceed 1.8 million bpd. These growing oil sands supplies present both challenges and opportunities for the industry, which are the topic of this paper.