Canadian Technology in the Oil & Gas Industry - Introduction

Developed in partnership with the World Petroleum Congress Canadian Association.

Consult the list of Canadian companies with oil and gas equipment and services capabilities in the "Canadian Companies Capabilities Database".

Introduction

Canada has some of the harshest operating conditions on earth - both onshore and offshore. Canada is an outstanding incubator for new technology due to the diversity of well depths, geological conditions, low operating costs and variety of production. Canadian expertise is being exported around the world.

Oil and Gas

Canada is the second largest country in the world. Much of Canada is covered with ice and snow for over half the year. In the winter the other parts of the country generally have extensive snow and frigid winter temperatures as low as -40°C. 

With 28.4 billion cubic metres of proven oil reserves in 2005, Canada's reserve base of crude oil is the second largest in the world and only surpassed by that of Saudi Arabia.

Canada is the third largest producer of natural gas and the ninth largest producer of crude oil. Canada is also one of the largest exporters of elemental sulphur in the world.

Drilling

In 2004 almost 23 000 wells were drilled placing Canada in second place in the total number drilled among countries worldwide. The total included 3 284 directionally drilled wells, 1 610 horizontal wells and 1 598 coalbed methane wells.