Access to Natural Resources & Feedstocks
Edmonton is the prime location for easy access to northern Alberta’s massive oil and gas reserves.
Alberta is located within the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin and home to the Northern Alberta Athabasca oil sands – the foundations of Alberta’s energy sector. Couple this with huge tracks of northern boreal forest and prime agricultural land and it is clear that Alberta’s resources will support various enterprises for years to come.
Edmonton is centrally located for industrial producers to access the following natural resources:
- Coal
- Oil
- Bitumen (oil sands)
- Natural gas
- Forestry products
- Grains, seed oils and livestock (cattle, hogs and poultry)
Fossil fuel reserves indicate secure supplies for current and future petrochemical production.
Hydrocarbon Reserves and Production Levels
| Product | Total Reserves | 2010 Production |
|---|---|---|
| Natural gas - conventional and unconventional | 34.5 trillion cubic feet | 3.7 trillion cubic feet |
| Shale gas | 3,424 trillion cubic feet |
200,000 metres3/day |
| Conventional oil | 1.7 billion barrels | 203 million barrels |
| Bitumen (excluding SCO) | 168 billion barrels | 705 million barrels |
| Coal | 37 billion tonnes | 35 million tonnes |
Source: ERCB, Alberta’s Energy Reserves 2012 and Supply/Demand Outlook
Edmonton is part of Alberta’s Industrial Heartland (AIH) region – Canada’s largest chemical and hydrocarbon processing area. The AIH region encompasses 582 square kilometres (225 square miles) of industrial land.
The AIH partner municipalities have complementary land use plans and work together to promote heavy and medium industrial development.
AIH is home to 15 world-scale hydrocarbon processing facilities that contribute to 43% of the nation’s basic chemical manufacturing. This important cluster of global chemical processors produces a wide range of value-added petrochemical products.
Following are current reserves and production for these key feedstocks.
Hydrocarbon Feedstock Production1
| Product | Total Reserves | 2012 Production |
|---|---|---|
| Synthetic crude oil | 329 million barrels |
|
| Conventional NGLs (liquid) | ||
| Ethane | 684 million barrels | 216,000 barrels/day |
| Propane | 401 million barrels | 142,000 barrels/day |
| Butane | 218 million barrels | 75,000 barrels/day |
| Pentanes plus | 307 million barrels | 120,000 barrels/day |
| Off gas liquids from oil sands upgrading (2010 levels)2 | 180,000 barrels/day potential |
18,000 barrels/day |
Sources: 1. Alberta Energy 2013
2. Alberta’s Industrial Heartland Association, IHS Inc. January 2012
For More Information
Ken Mamczasz, P.Eng.
Economic and Environmental Sustainability
Sustainable Development
12th Floor, HSBC Bank Place
10250-101 Street NW
Edmonton, AB T5J 3P4
| Title | Senior Development Engineer, Industrial Services Team |
|---|---|
| Telephone | 780-496-6036 |
| ken.mamczasz@edmonton.ca |
