Oil production in Alberta is up

Source: https://mailchi.mp/8a62d2dbbda8/the-owl-oil-production-in-alberta-is-up?e=6f1f3fb3a5

With all of the news on oil and pipelines this week, its timely for The Owl to examine what’s happening with oil extraction in our province.

According to the latest oil supply and disposition statistics, oil extraction in Alberta is up over the last 12 complete months. As of February, 94 million barrels of oil were extracted in Alberta, three per cent higher than February of 2017. Over the last 12 complete months, oil production has grown by over eight per cent.

As the chart below shows, extraction remained strong in almost every month over the course of the downturn. In fact, oil production reached a record at the end of last year with 105 million barrels of oil produced in the province in December. The rising production levels are due to several major oil sands projects coming online, stronger prices and the desire to strengthen company balance sheets given the stress they were under during the recession.

So, what’s in store for Alberta oil production in the long-term? With the recent news of the Trans Mountain Pipeline, more producers may be thinking about increasing production to sell oil in the lucrative Asian markets. The pipeline, of course, still has to get built for this happen.