Oil Facts

Canada is the seventh-largest producer of crude oil in the world.

Canada holds the world's second-largest oil reserves, taking into account Alberta oil sands previously considered too expensive to develop.

Canada produces over 2.6 million barrels of crude oil per day.

We currently export almost 1.8 million barrels per day of crude oil, primarily to refineries in the central and western United States.

We have huge, undeveloped crude oil deposits.

Conventional crude oil production in Alberta averaged 543 thousand barrels a day (bbls/d) and Oil sands production of 1.2 million barrels a day (bbls/d) in 2006.

Alberta exported over 1.3 million bbls/d of oil to US markets in 2006, an increase of 15% over 2005 and an increase of 43% over 2000.

There are about 3,000 "petroleum products" or products made from crude oil including gasoline, ink, crayons, bubble gum, dishwashing liquids, deodorant, eyeglasses, records, tires, ammonia, and heart valves.

All crude oil is not the same. Crude oil is called "sweet" when it contains only a small amount of sulphur and "sour" if it contains a lot of sulphur.

There are 159 litres (42 US gallons) in a barrel of oil.  During the early development of the petroleum industry, 42 US gallons was deemed to equal a barrel of oil.  The only barrels guaranteed to be 42 US gallons were the blue barrels manufactured for and used by Standard Oil.  Thus the standard measure for oil became the 42 US gallon blue barrel or "bbl".

In 2006, Alberta produced more crude oil from non-conventional resources (Oil Sands) than from conventional sources.

At the year end 2006, the world crude oil reserves were estimated at close to 1.37 trillion barrels, of which the 11 OPEC Member Countries held about 66 per cent.  The Members of OPEC currently produce around 34 million barrels per day of oil, or some 40 per cent of the world total output, which stands at about 85 million barrels per day.