Oil and Gas Technology and Services

Alberta’s technologies and services are in demand all over the world and generate billions of dollars in revenues. Although fossil fuels still dominate the world energy mix, higher environmental and regulatory standards are challenging the industry to find new and improved ways to enhance productivity related to upstream exploration and development.

Meeting energy sector challenges

According to Energy Resources Conservation Board, Alberta’s goal is to produce approximately 3.0 billion barrels of oil sands and heavy oil a day by 2020.  With conventional oil production peaking in 2006, Alberta’s oil industry is under significant pressure to meet that goal.

The production and export of natural gas is also critical to the province’s economy. Like conventional oil, conventional gas has also peaked and is now on the decline. This places significant pressure Alberta’s unconventional gas industry to meet current and future demands.

There is currently wide discussion in Alberta pertaining to natural gas exploration and development in Alberta. The Canadian Society for Unconventional Gas (CSUG) and the Canadian Energy research Institute (CERI) hosted and industry one day conference on September 22, 2009. The purpose of this event was to focus discussion on the challenges that the natural gas industry faces in Western Canada. The forum essentially concluded that natural gas is facing a major shift in North America, which has the potential to affect Alberta’s industry for several years. The forum highlighted that natural gas is undergoing major shift in supply and demand dynamics due to the global recession and significant new supply sources from emerging shale basins in southern United States.

Unconventional gas development in Western Canada is being discussed as a potential means to additionally offset declining conventional gas production. Technology development via research and development are critical elements when considering unconventional gas development. Unconventional gas development challenges are multifaceted. Several broad challenge areas include:

  • Drilling
  • Geomatics
  • Geochemistry
  • Hydrogeology
  • Reservoir modeling and simulation
  • Materials management
  • Gas separation
  • Process design and engineering
  • Wastewater systems management

The energy technology and services sector is key to meeting oil and gas challenges. Through advancements made in technology and innovation, businesses in these sectors position themselves to become suppliers of technologies and services to the global marketplace.

For more information on the energy technology and services sector in Alberta, see:

Contact

Tim Hazlett, Director, Oil and Gas Technology and Services

Date Updated: Nov 04, 2009
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