Oilpatch

Categories: Alberta | Petroleum

Oilpatch is a term used in reference to the petroleum industry, particularly in Alberta, Canada. It describes much of the industries involved in the extraction, transportation, refining and other related industries to the process. There are hundreds of small companies in Alberta dedicated to providing all sorts of services to this industry - from drilling to well maintenance, pipeline maintenance to seismic exploration.

Industry Background

Alberta is the largest producer of conventional crude oil, synthetic crude, natural gas and gas products in the country. Two of the largest producers of petrochemicals in North America are located in central and north central Alberta. In both Red Deer and Edmonton, world class polyethylene and vinyl manufacturers produce products shipped all over the world, and Edmonton's oil refineries provide the raw materials for a large petrochemical industry to the east of Edmonton.

The Athabasca Oil Sands (previously known as the Athabasca Tar Sands) have estimated oil reserves in excess of that of the rest of the world, estimated to be 1.6 trillion barrels (254 km³). With the advancement of extraction methods, bitumen and economical synthetic crude are produced at costs nearing that of conventional crude. This technology is Alberta grown and developed. Many companies employ both conventional strip mining and non-conventional methods to extract the bitumen from the Athabasca deposit. With current technology, only 315 billion barrels (50 km³) are recoverable. Fort McMurray, one of Canada's youngest and liveliest cities, has grown up entirely because of the large multinational corporations which have taken on the task of oil production.

While Edmonton is considered the pipeline junction, manufacturing, chemical processing, research and refining centre of the province, Calgary is known for its senior and junior oil company head offices.