Western Canada is home to the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin, an area covering 1.4 million square kilometres and the hub of Canada’s onshore oil and gas industry. The hydrocarbon-rich basin was formed by ancient oceans that flooded the area millions of years ago and laid down sedimentary deposits which now contain crude oil and natural gas.

The oil and gas industry is a significant economic driver for Canada.  In 2010, the industry invested $32 billion in Western Canada (excluding oil sands).  The industry produces conventional natural gas, unconventional natural gas (including shale gas, tight sands and coalbed methane) and a large spectrum of crude oil, including conventional oil and oil from tight sands and shale formations.

Please note: Canada’s oil sands are discussed in a separate section and not included in the data reported in this section covering Western Canada.

Data Sources

Data from CAPP members and the Government of Alberta has been used in this report. The Government of Alberta’s data includes all of the exploration and production industry active in the province. Comparable data was not available from the British Columbia and Saskatchewan governments for 2010. However, 78 per cent of Western Canada’s total oil and gas production is covered by the Alberta government’s figures.

The Government of Alberta’s data includes the following Key Performance Indicators:

• Fresh water withdrawal (million m³ per year);
• Non-fresh water withdrawal (million m³ per year);
• Fresh water as a per cent of total withdrawals (percentage); and,
• Fresh water withdrawal per barrel of production (m³ of water/ m³ of oil).

In 2010, CAPP asked its members for the first time to voluntarily report their non-oil sands water use on a province-by-province basis in Western Canada. Fifty-one companies (comprising 77 per cent of CAPP members’ total production) reported their water data by province; the remaining 11 companies (comprising 23 per cent of CAPP members’ total production) reported their water usage as a total for Western Canada, as done in previous years. Voluntarily contributed CAPP member data has been used to report the percentage of water re-use in shale gas, tight gas and tight oil operations.