ERCB report indicates largest conventional crude oil production and reserves increase in decades

The latest edition of the Energy Resources Conservation Board (ERCB) publication ST-98 Alberta's Energy Reserves 2012 and Supply/Demand Outlook 2013-2022, shows a 14 per cent increase in production and 9.5 per cent increase in reserves over 2011 levels.


In 2012, Alberta’s crude oil production totaled 88.4 thousand cubic metres (m3) (556 thousand barrels) of oil per day with a yearly total of 32.3 million m3 (204 million barrels). This increase is due to the higher production rates of horizontal wells.

In 2012, Alberta produced 305 thousand m3 (1.9 million barrels) per day of raw crude bitumen from the oil sands for a yearly total of 112 million m3 (704 million barrels) or a 10 per cent increase over Alberta’s 2011 crude bitumen production.

The ERCB forecasts Alberta’s annual raw crude bitumen production will total 605.4 thousand m3 (3.8 million barrels) per day for a total of 221 million m3 (1.39 billion barrels) per year in 2022.

The report notes that, since 1967, Alberta has produced about 1.4 billion m3 (8.8 billion barrels) of raw crude bitumen from the oil sands and about 2.7 billion m3 (16.7 billion barrels) of crude oil since 1914.

Other report highlights include:

• Alberta's total remaining established crude bitumen and crude oil reserves totaled 27.0 billion m3 (169.6 billion barrels), consisting of 26.7 billion m3 (167.9 billion barrels) of crude bitumen and 269.2 million m3 (1.7 billion barrels) of crude oil
• Remaining established marketable conventional gas reserves stood at 916 billion m3 (33 trillion cubic feet), a decrease of 3 per cent from 2011
• Remaining established reserves of natural gas liquids stood at 252.0 million m3 (1.6 billion barrels), down 1 per cent from 2011

This report is available at www.ercb.ca.