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Oil, natural gas and petroleum products accounted for more than 68% of Alberta’s exports in 2007.
Oil, natural gas and petroleum products accounted for 27.2% of Alberta’s provincial GDP.
In 2007, petroleum industry payments to the province, which amounted to $11 billion, accounted for 28.9% of provincial government revenues.
One in six Albertans is employed by the oil and gas industry.
In 2007, Alberta’s per capita GDP was $74,825. This was 30.5% higher than the next closest province Newfoundland ($57,348). The national average was $46,441, with Prince Edward Island having the lowest per capita GDP with $32,735.
Discover the key energy facts about Alberta.
By the numbers (424KB PDF)
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Crude Oil
The oil sector has been a driver of the Alberta economy for almost 100 years. While the sector took off in 1947 with the Leduc discovery, the province’s first major oil field was discovered in Turner Valley in 1914.
In the 2007/2008 fiscal year, conventional crude oil production was the third-largest source of non-renewable resource revenue for Albertans.
In 2007, Alberta received $11 billion from the petroleum industry for the use of the province’s oil and gas resources.
In 2007, conventional crude oil production accounted for about 28% of Alberta's total crude oil and equivalent production, which is about 21% of Canada's total crude oil and equivalent production.
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Natural Gas
Alberta is home to a large natural gas resource base which accounts for just over 80% of the natural gas produced in Canada. Although natural gas is found throughout the province, concentrations are heavier in the mid- and southeast portions of Alberta.
Natural gas was discovered in Alberta in 1883, and by 1890, residents of Medicine Hat were using natural gas found beneath the town for cooking, heating and lighting.
Alberta produced an average of 13.1 billion cubic feet per day of marketed natural gas in 2007.
There were 95,853 conventional operated gas wells as of December 2007. When including coal derived natural gas, the number of gas wells rose to 102,476.
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Oilsands
There are currently more than 120 active mining and in-situ oilsands projects in Alberta.In 2007 oilsands were the source of about 63% of Alberta’s total crude oil and equivalent production and about 43% of all crude oil and equivalent produced in Canada.
The oilsands have an area larger than Florida, twice the size of New Brunswick, are four and a half times the size of Vancouver Island, and 26 times larger than Prince Edward Island.
525,000 barrels of conventional and 1,199,000 barrels of oilsands mining and in-situ oil were produced in Alberta per day in 2007. In 2007, $39.3 billion in oilsands and conventional oil capital spending was invested in Alberta.
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Natural Gas Pipelines
In 2007, Alberta’s natural gas pipelines transported 4,558 billion cubic feet of marketable gas, or about 12.5 billion cubic feet per day.
TransCanada’s 100% owned natural gas transmission system in Alberta gathers natural gas for use within the province and delivers it to provincial boundary points for connection with the Canadian Mainline, BC System, the Foothills System and other pipelines. The 23,186 kilometre system is one of the largest carriers of natural gas in North America.
Crude Oil Pipelines
In 2007, an average of 453,425 barrels per day or a total of 165.5 million barrels of crude oil and equivalent were delivered to Alberta refineries.
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Refineries & Upgraders
The Imperial oil refinery is located in Strathcona County. In May 2006, the Strathcona refinery began producing ultra-low sulphur diesel, reducing its sulphur content by more than 97%. The refinery has approximately 430 employees and 250 contractors, and has a daily rated capacity of 187,000 barrels of crude oil.
Shell Canada’s Scotford Refinery is the first refinery to exclusively process synthetic crude from Alberta’s oilsands. The refinery has more than 750 full-time staff and long term contractors, and a capacity of 100,000 barrels of synthetic crude oil daily.
Petro Canada’s refinery is currently undergoing upgrades to process oilsands feedstock exclusively. The project is expected to cost about $2.2 billion.
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Hydroelectricity
Alberta currently has 900 megawatts of installed hydroelectricity generating capacity.
Alberta currently has 16 hydro facilities in operation. Ontario leads the country with 63.
The Brazeau facility, operated by TransAlta is the largest in the province providing 42% (355 megawatts) of all Alberta’s hydroelectricity.
Canadian Hydro Developers proposed 100-megawatt Dunvegan Hydro Project new Fairview, Alberta received approval from the Joint Review Panel in December 2008. The project is a low-head, run-of-the-river hydroelectric generating facility which, when completed, will provide enough electricity for more than 80,000 homes.
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Coal
Alberta's coal resources contain more than twice the energy of all of the province's other non-renewable energy resources, including conventional oil and pentanes, natural gas, natural gas liquids, and bitumen and synthetic crude.
Technologies, such as coal gasification, coal liquefaction, carbon dioxide storage and sequestration, have the potential to allow Alberta to utilize its coal with near-zero, possibly even zero, emissions into the atmosphere.
The Government of Alberta is investing $2 billion to encourage construction of the province’s first large-scale carbon capture and storage projects to reduce emissions at facilities such as coal-fired electricity plants and oilsands extraction sites and upgraders.
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Wind
There are 22 wind farms in Alberta. With 523 megawatts of installed capacity, enough to supply more than 400,000 homes with electricity for a year, Alberta has Canada's third largest wind power capacity behind Ontario and Quebec.
The largest wind farm is located in Taber and has an installed capacity of 81.4 megawatts.
The province of Alberta also has five new wind projects which are already under construction or for which there is a signed power purchase agreement. The largest of these is the 100 megawatt Glenridge Phase 1, scheduled to be completed by 2010.
According to Alberta Energy, another 83 wind projects with combined installed capacity of 11,880 megawatts have been proposed.
Since 2001 Calgary Transit in partnership with ENMAX and Vision Quest Windelectric Inc. has used wind-generated electricity to power the CTrain light rail system. Twelve wind turbines generate the wind power reducing CO2 emissions by 26,000 tonnes annually.
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Thermal Electricity Generation
Alberta currently has 5,893 megawatts of coal plant electricity generating capacity. Alberta has the most cost coal fired thermal generation facilities in the country with eight.
The Sundance (Wabamun) facility, owned by TransAlta, is the largest in the province with 2,020 megawatts capacity.
Genessee 3, is the most technologically advanced coal-fired generation facility in Canada. The facility uses a supercritical pressure boiler, in which higher temperatures, higher steam pressures and a high efficiency steam turbine combine to produce a more efficient process for converting thermal energy into electricity. Less coal is burned to produce each megawatt of electricity, thus reducing air emissions.
