28-05-06

Canada's oil production could double by 2020 as new projects in the country's oil sands more than replace declining conventional output, the Canadian oil industry's biggest lobby group said.
Oil production in Canada, the biggest supplier to the US market, is expected to grow to 4.9 mm bpd by 2020 from last year's daily average of 2.5 mm barrels, the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP) said in its annual production forecast.

The group also increased its forecast for Canada's oil output in 2015, boosting it by 750,000 bpd to 4.6 mm as billions of dollars in new projects aimed at exploiting the oil sands, one of the world's greatest reserves of petroleum, are completed.
Canada's oil sands contain an estimated 174 mm barrels of petroleum, a resource second in size only to that of Saudi Arabia. With oil prices remaining at lofty levels, removing the tar-like bitumen from sand and refining it into synthetic oil yields enough profit that about C$ 100 bn ($ 91 bn) is expected to be invested in the region over the next decade.

The forecast was raised after some companies announced increased spending on their oils sands reserves. EnCana and Canadian Natural Resources both said last year that they plan to boost output from the region by a half-mm bpd over the next decade and more. The two firms expect to spend a combined C$ 25 bn on their oil sands projects.
Yet as oil sands output grows, conventional oil reserves are becoming scarce, the association said. In decline since the late 1990s, current production of 1.1 mm bpd, equal to the output of the oil sands, may fall half by 2020.