Oil Sands Review

Time Magazine has described the Alberta oil sands as “Canada’s greatest buried energy treasure… that could satisfy the world’s demand for petroleum energy for the next century.” Alberta’s oil sands contain one of the world’s largest basins of oil reserves; current estimates show that these reserves are second only to Saudi Arabia.

Eighty percent of all bitumen resources in the Athabasca oil sands region is too deep to mine.
Currently, oil sands represent about 45 percent of Alberta’s total oil production, and about one-third of all the oil produced in Canada. It is anticipated that by 2010 Alberta oil sands will generate nearly two million barrels per day, or an estimated 67 percent of Canada’s projected crude oil production.
Alberta’s oil reserves are located in three major areas: Peace River, Cold Lake, and Athabasca. The Athabasca oil sands, where OPTI and Nexen own substantial resources, is the richest of the three and has the most concentrated oil sands development.