The old saying… “To pour oil on troubled waters…”, may seem appropriate in our era of inflammatory petropolitics, yet it seems more a propos to say… “To throw oil on the fire…” as we discuss petroleum policy. But, before attempting insightful commentary on Canada’s petroleum and pipelines policies, or making bad puns (sorry), drilling down into some of the facts and issues around Canada’s oil and natural gas (O&G) industries seems warranted.
Canada is the World’s 4th largest petroleum and 5th largest natural gas producer. O&G fuels our economy, forming by far our largest economic and export sectors. Yet Canadians, especially east of Winnipeg, know far more about the Toronto Maple Leafs and Montreal Canadiens than they do about these economic pillars of Canada’s prosperity. Hockey is part of our national fabric, but O&G also produce a lot of fabric (polyester, rayon, plastics…), and keeps us mobile and warm besides.
At current production rates, Canada likely has enough oil for a century or more and certainly enough natural gas for several centuries. We export most of our oil and gas production. So why do oil tankers steam up the St Lawrence, threatening beluga, minke and humpback whales, to deliver foreign crude oil to the refineries at Levis, Québec? Why does Canada’s largest refinery in St. John, NB, rely almost entirely on foreign oil? Why do Ontario, Québec and the Maritimes import most of their natural gas from the USA? Why is there such a strong anti-pipeline lobby in Canada? Do we want or need new pipelines? And what about fueling global warming?
I have no real satisfactory answer to many of these questions, but I will try to present a few facts, a bit of history, and some random observations about the Canadian O&G industry to fuel your interest and lubricate your brain cells. Remember that between you and the dangerous outside world is a layer of oil that keeps it all together: your skin is made of cells with hydrophobic lipid (oil) walls, keeping out the water. Also, oil comes from algae – small single-celled animals with cell walls made of lipids: their bodies, plus geological processes, are responsible for the oil and much of the natural gas we produce, consume and export. Dust to dust, ashes to ashes, and sometimes, oil to oil…
About the Speaker
Maurice Dusseault is Professor Emeritus of Earth and Environmental Sciences at the University of Waterloo. Maurice started his work life as a roughneck, working a couple of years in the oil industry before returning to University in Alberta. His research over the last five decades has focused on subsurface geo-engineering, including oil and gas production.
