AAPG FOUNDATION PRATT CONFERENCE: PETROLEUM PROVINCES, 21st CENTURY
January 12-15, 2000
San Diego, California

KEITH SKIPPER, Antrim International Inc., Calgary, Canada

Abstract: Petroleum Resources of Canada for the 21st Century

Remaining reserves of marketable crude oil and natural gas in Canada are in excess of 9 billion barrels and 65 trillion cubic feet (Tcf) enabling current annual extraction rates of 800 million barrels and 6 Tcf respectively mainly from the mature Western Canada Sedimentary Basin. In the next millennium, expanded contributions to production capacity will come initially from the Mesozoic Jeanne d'Arc Basin (e.g. Hibernia & Terra Nova oil) offshore Newfoundland and basins off Nova Scotia (e.g. Sable Island gas). In northern Alberta, additional investment in exploiting the Cretaceous oil sands will enhance the production of upgraded (synthetic) crude oil, bitumen and heavy oil.

Notwithstanding the technical and commercial challenges, predictions of remaining exploitable resources in accessible areas exceed 200 Tcf of gas and 100 billion barrels of bitumen. In addition to oil sands, tight gas and coalbed methane in the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin, significant undeveloped resources are known in the remote Canadian Arctic islands (Sverdrup Basin), the Labrador shelf (gas) and the Beaufort Basin (gas and oil). Many of these resources will remain "orphaned", depending on environmental aspects, delivery costs, markets and commodity price. Current "stranded gas" in the Mackenzie Delta and the shallow offshore waters of the Beaufort Sea may be connected (via the Mackenzie Valley corridor) to the natural gas pipeline grid serving domestic and United States markets. Associated gas reserves (presently re-injected at Hibernia) in the Jeanne d'Arc Basin, if not connected to shore by pipeline, may be developed using either natural gas to liquid conversion or compressed gas transport technologies.

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