Canadian Natural Resources is one of the Canada's largest natural gas, and petroleum development and production companies. Their main headquarters is located in Calgary, Alberta. Canadian Natural Resources also ranks in the top two hundred and fifty on the Forbes Global 2000 list. Their main operational focus is in the North Seas, the shores of West Africa and Western Canada. Canadian Natural Resources also has field offices in British Columbia, Aberdeen and Scotland.
The growth of Canadian Natural Resources is truly astounding. As of the early 1990's their oil production was at less than 1500 barrels of petroleum per day. Thanks to many smart business acquisitions, revolutionizing their production methods and unheard of growth for Canadian utility businesses, they now produce over half a million barrels of petroleum every day. Every day Canadian Natural Resources supplies over 30 billion dollars of crude oil for petroleum manufacturing.
One of Canadian Natural Resources main focus areas in their business has also been safety and corporate responsibility. They have developed several oil exploration methods that have drastically reduced the risk of damaging the natural resources in which they explore. They have been one of the standards set in the risk assessment of oil exploration and have developed safety auditing procedures that have been adopted by many other oil exploration companies all over the world.
Canadian Natural Resources has developed a water recycling method that has allowed them to reduce their water usage by nearly 90%. Their procedure involves reusing water that has already been used at their plants that is unusable for human, animal or plant consumption but can be used on a continual cycle for oil production.
Canadian Natural Resources has a large investment in the West African offshore oil sites and as such feels a strong responsibility to support and grow the West African communities. Every year they generously donate millions of dollars to the surrounding communities in which they operate in the form of housing and relief aid.
Canadian Oil Sands is a Canada-based company which generates profits from its investment in the Syncrude Project. Its oil sands facility has a capacity of 350,000 barrels and produces high-quality crude oil from oil sands mined at deposits in northern Alberta.
Canadian Oil Sands was established in 1995 and is headquartered in Calgary. Known as Canadian Oil Sands Trust, in 2010, the company changed its name to Canadian Oil Sands. As of 2009, it had probable and proved reserves of over 5 billion barrels of crude oil.
The company engages in upgrading and mining of bitumen and operates bitumen extraction plants, utilities plants, and oil sands mines. A number of companies have ownership in the Syncrude Project, among which Nexen Oil Sands Partnership, Canadian Oil Sands Partnership, and Canadian Oil Sands Partnership. Syncrude Canada Ltd. is tasked with administering the Syncrude Project and operates it on behalf of the owners. The company has an agreement with Imperial Oil Resources, according to which it has access to Imperial’s best practices and expertise, as well as to those of ExxonMobil, its majority owner, in areas such as energy management, environment performance, safety and procurement, and maintenance. The Syncrude Project operates through four main technologies – utilities, upgrading, mining, and extraction. The main activities are mining oil sands, extracting bitumen or raw oil, and upgrading it to light crude oil. During the upgrading process, raw oil is subjected to hydrotreating, hydroprocessing, reblending, and fluid cooking. Oil produced in this way is transported to refineries throughout the United States and Canada. It is ideal for jet fuel, diesel, gasoline, and chemical feedstocks. The lower content of nitrogen and distillate sulphur allows the refiners in North America to meet the strict environmental requirements.
The utilities operations at Syncrude generate mainly electricity and steam, treating water, which is necessary for plant operations. Syncrude not only generates electrical power but exports electricity to the power grid of Alberta.
The main competitors of Canadian Oil Sands are Imperial Oil Limited, Canadian Natural Resources Limited, and Encana Corporation, among others. The company is listed on the TSX under the symbol COS.
Headquartered in Calgary, Cenovus Energy is an oil company, which was formed in 2009, when EnCana Corporation split into two entities – EnCana, which is a natural gas company, and Cenovus, which is an integrated oil company. After the split, Cenovus acquired assets, which formerly belonged to AEC and PanCanadian Energy Corp., as well as interest in two high-quality refineries. These are Borger in Texas and Wood River near St. Louis.
The company is listed on NYSE and the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol CVE. Its main competitors are Shell Canada Limited, Husky Energy Inc., and others.
Cenovus Energy has two main oil sands projects, Christina Lake and Foster Creek, which are located in the northeastern part of Alberta. The oil at Christina Lake and Foster Lake is found at about 350-450 metres below the surface, requiring specialized technology to pump it to the surface. Steam-assisted gravity energy technology is the main method used for these projects, with steam being injected to the reservoir, softening the oil to pump it to the surface.
The company also produces heavy oil at the Pelican Lake operation, which is located north of Edmonton. The Pelican Lake operation is 100 percent-owned, and water and polymer flooding techniques are used to create wells. The Weyburn oilfield is another major oil project in Saskatchewan and among the most prolific oilfields on the territory of Western Canada. The oil recovery method used here is CO2 injection, aiming to increase oil production. This technique is expected to extend the life of the operation by thirty years. In addition, Cenovus Energy has natural gas wells found in the Langevin, Brooks, and Suffield areas.
Technology pays a major role in the company’s operations, specifically in extracting natural gas and oil resources, improving the way of extracting natural resources, and increasing the amount recovered. The main objective in this regard is to implement innovative technologies which will reduce the amount of energy, water, and land used. Due to integration, the company takes pride in having a low risk profile. Its natural oil sands production and gas fuels can be refined and turned into a variety of products, including diesel, gasoline, and other petroleum products.
Crescent Point Energy Trust is a gas and oil production company focusing on the production of crude oil in southern Saskatchewan. Based in Calgary, the company was founded as Crescent Point Energy Ltd in 2001. Crescent Point Energy Corp. was established with the restructuring of two junior gas and oil companies, Tappit Resources Ltd and Crescent Point Energy Ltd, in 2003. The company completed key consolidation acquisitions and acquisitions in 2004, including acquisitions in the southeast part of Saskatchewan. In 2005, the company consolidated its assets in the John Lake area and in Saskatchewan, completing five acquisitions worth about $100 million.
The company’s core operating areas include the Cantuar property, the Battrum property, the John Lake property, and the Lower Shaunavon play. Cantuar is a property in which the company has a 55 percent interest. Crescent Point continues optimizing the reserves and production activities in this area through re-completions, infill drilling, and water flood optimization. One of the major operating areas of the company is the Lower Shaunavon oil pool, which is among the largest oil plays in Canada. In addition, Crescent Point has a 45 percent interest in the Battrum property, which is an oil pool acquired in 2006. In 2009, the company acquired TriAxon Resources Ltd and Wave Energy Ltd., thus gaining a land position in an oil pool found in the Dodsland areas and the Plato in western Saskatchewan. The Viking play is a light oil play and tight rock formation, benefiting from advanced fracture stimulation techniques. Other operating areas are the Manor property and Sounding Lake, which contains natural gas and medium gravity oil. This is the original core property of the company and Crescent Energy has a 90 percent interest in it.
The company employs low-risk large drilling inventory as to maintain its reserves production, and dividends. The reserve life index of the company is 14.3 years. It is listed on TSX under the symbol CPG, and its main competitors are AB Peyto Exploration & Development Corp., Encana Corporation, based in Calgary, and Canadian Natural Resources Limited, among others.
Enbridge Inc. is a Calgary-based company, which focuses on three major activities – green energy, transportation and distribution of natural gas, and liquids and crude oil pipelines. It is listed on the NYSE and TSX under the symbol ENB and was initially established in 1949 as Interprovincial Pipe Line. The original pipeline was built for the transportation of oil from the western part of Canada to refineries found in the east. In 1998, Interprovincial Pipe Line changed its name to Enbridge Pipelines. The name Enbridge is a portmanteau word from energy and bridge.
The largest gas distribution utility in Canada is Enbridge Gas Distribution, which serves northern New York State, southwestern Quebec, and eastern Ontario. The company also has interest in Noverco Inc, a holding company that operates the Gaz Métro Limited Partnership through its subsidiary and is engaged in the distribution of natural gas in Quebec. The company provides gas to residential, commercial, and industrial customers. Enbridge also owns Enbridge Gas New Brunswick, which has the franchise for natural gas distribution in New Brunswick.
The company is also the largest transporter of liquids and crude oil in Canada, exporting over 100 refined products. Enbridge is engaged in the transportation of natural gas all over the North American continent, with the Vector Pipeline providing supplies to end-user customers and for local distribution in Ontario, Michigan, Indiana, and Illinois. Through a gas gatherer and processor of natural gas in Texas, the company connects three major gas development areas in the United States.
The company also operates Enbridge Offshore Pipelines in the Gulf of Mexico, transporting about fifty percent of its natural gas production in the region. Enbridge Offshore Pipelines has interest in a pipeline system of transmission and gathering pipelines in the offshore waters of Mississippi and Louisiana. These pipelines consist of about 1,500 miles of offshore and underwater pipe facilities.
Enbridge also invests in alternative energy products including waste heat recovery facilities and energy recovery and fuel cell equipment. The main competitors of the company are Koch Industries Inc., El Paso Corporation, and Consolidated Edison, Inc.
EnCana Corp. is among the largest producers of natural gas on the North American continent. Its goal is to be high-growth, lowest-cost senior producer of natural gas, with operations in Canada and the United States.
Gas was discovered in 1883 when the Canadian Pacific Railway undertook drilling operations close to Medicine Hat. Canadian Pacific Oil and Gas was created in 1958 by the Canadian Pacific Railway company to operate its gas and oil properties and manage its mineral rights. Central-Del Rio Oils and Canadian Pacific Oil merged in 1971 and PanCanadian Petroleum Limited was established in 1971. A merger between Alberta Energy Corporation and PanCanadian took place in 2002, after spinning out of CPR. EnCana was formed through the merger of the two entities, and in 2009, it split into two companies. One became Cenvus Energy, which is an integrated oil company, and the other,
EnCana, focuses on the production of natural gas.
EnCana Corp has a number of operations in Canada and the US. Its main focus is on the development of plays and natural gas exploration, holding a competitive resource and land position in many tight gas and shale resource plays. Among its resource plays are Greater Sierra and Cutbank Ridge, both in British Columbia, Bighorn Deep Basin and Coalbed methane, found in Alberta, Haynesville in Texas and Louisiana, and others.
At Bighorn, the company operates sweet gas wells, and its producing properties are Berland, Kakwa, Resthaven, and Redrock. The production of natural gas in these properties takes place in five facilities, including Wild River, Resthaven, and Edson. At Cutbank Ridge, EnCana produces gas using hydraulic fracture stimulation and drilling techniques, generating attractive results. The company uses horizontal drilling technology in the resource play at Greater Sierra to develop land in the Jean Marie formation. The company has four operations in the US – Texas, Piceance, Haynesville, and Jonah and interest in processing and gas gathering facilities located in Utah, Texas, Wyoming, and Colorado.
The main competitors of EnCana Corp are Talisman Energy Inc., Chesapeake Energy Corporation, Apache Corporation, and others.
Harvest Operations is a large energy company in Canada, which offers exposure to downstream marketing and refining operations and upstream natural gas and oil production. The company has adopted a technical approach to maximizing its assets and maintains an active acquisition program. Its natural gas and crude oil production operations are weighted to 30 percent to natural gas and 70 percent to oil, and it operates a crude oil refinery.
Harvest Operations was established in 2002 and since then, it has experienced value appreciation and growth. In 2006, the company acquired North Atlantic Refining, together with its marketing business and turned into an integrated company. North Atlantic’s main asset is a hydrocracking refinery, situated in Newfoundland. The company has invested about $600 million in its facilities, ensuring reliable, clean, safe, and productive operations, including improvements, upgrades, and refinery expansion, so that its jet fuel and diesel fuel meet the requirements and specifications within Europe, North America, and Asia.
Today, Harvest Operations takes pride in its development opportunities, extensive land base, operational expertise, and balanced asset base. At the hydrocracking refinery, crude oil is fractioned into non-liquid and liquid gas (butane, propane, and fuel gas), and liquid products are processed for blending. The production of middle distillates such as diesel and kerosene takes place in the distillation tower. Designated tanks are used to temporarily store finished refined products.
Headquartered in St. Johns, the marketing division of North Atlantic is comprised of 5 segments: commercial, home heating, retail, bunkers, and wholesale. North Atlantic delivers propane and furnace oil to its commercial and residential customers in Newfoundland. At its wharf facilities, it sells bunkers to refined product and crude oil vessels. North Atlantic also provides propane, jet fuel, and distillates to its wholesale customers, from truck rack and wharf facilities. In delivers propane, jet fuel, No. 6 fuel oil, and distillates to the aviation, marine, commercial heating, construction, and aviation industries. Finally, North Atlantic owns commercial cardlock locations and retail gasoline stations, and there are convenience stores at most locations, which are independently operated. Its major competitors here are Ultramar, Imperial Oil, and Irving Oil.
Husky Energy is a Canadian integrated energy company traded on the TSE under the symbols HSE.PR.A and HSE. Its main competitors are Devon Energy Corporation, Canadian Natural Resources Limited, and others.
The company was established in Cody, Wyoming in 1938, and the first refinery was constructed in Riverton. The refinery was moved in 1946 to Lloydminster in order to take advantage of the growing heavy oil and asphalt opportunities in the area. The company’s historic foundation is Western Canada due to its natural gas and oil assts, transportation infrastructure, and significant volumes of heavy oil production.
Husky Energy specializes in the production and exploration of natural gas liquids, natural gas, light crude oil, and heavy oil. Its strategy in Western Canada is to maintain heavy oil production, de-risk dry gas plays, direct capital into liquids-rich gas operations, and increase its oil resource plays.
Headquartered in Calgary, Husky Energy operates Downstream, Midstream, and Upstream business segments and takes pride in offering a combination of sound project management and prudent investment. Midstream operations encompass gas storage, pipeline transportation, cogeneration, and marketing of an array of petroleum products. The company focuses on oil sands and heavy oil production as well as optimizing and maintaining the existing infrastructure. The Midstream assets of the company are linked to key transportation systems in North America and are strategically located on the territory of Western Canada. The crude oil pipeline system extends across 2,000 km. The Upstream operations focus on gas and oil extraction and exploitation. Downstream operations are intended to offer strategic support for the company’s Upstream operations. These include refining and upgrading crude oil as well as marketing jet fuel, diesel, gasoline, ethanol, asphalt, and other products in the US and Canada. Husky Energy also continues to evaluate projects aiming to reconfigure, integrate, and optimize the Lima, Ohio Refinery. The retail distribution network of the company focuses on retail, commercial, and wholesale marketing of refined petroleum, providing substantial non-fuel income from the company’s car wash, restaurant, and convenience store operations.
Husky Energy has identified three pillars to base its future expansion and growth – offshore development on the territory of Southeast Asia, offshore development on the Canadian east cost, and oil sands.
Imperial Oil is Canada’s largest petroleum provider and among the top providers of petrochemicals for a wide variety of industries around the world. Through a strong focus on diversification in the petroleum industry Imperial Oil has established a strong foundation of profitability and sustainability. It actively sets and exceeds its corporate goals while maintaining a strong sense of community and dedication to its employees, as well as the communities and companies it serves.
Imperial Oil is one of the oldest petroleum providers in Canada, incorporating in London, Ontario in 1880, with its current headquarters located in Calgary, Alberta. Through the acquisition of several smaller petroleum providers and its acquisition of the Candian-based holdings of the US Texaco company, Imperial Oil quickly became the leading company in petroleum in Canada, servicing thousands of petroleum stations all over Canada under the Esso, On the Run and Marche’ Express brands.
While many of its competitors have stayed static in the investment of commercial fuels, Imperial Oil has profited in the last forty years by developing diversity in their products. Petroleum is used in hundreds of everyday common products. Paint products, children’s toys and even many food-packaging materials are developed with petroleum products from Imperial Oil. Through this diversification of investment, Imperial Oil has been able to gain a strong standing in many of today’s leading industries, allowing them to greatly expand their business into areas that many fuel-producing companies have not explored.
Safety is one of the key components of Imperial Oil’s company vision. As more and more concerns are voiced about the safety of petroleum products, Imperial Oil has actively developed safer and more efficient products and development policies that have not only made the production of thousands of non-fuel related products safer, but has made them cheaper to manufacture. This commitment to safety and efficiency has led to the growth of many other companies all over the world.
Imperial Oil is the largest petroleum company in Canada, engaged in the production, exploration, and sale of natural gas and crude oil. It was established in 1880 in London, Ontario and was based in Toronto until 2005. Imperial Oil acquired the retail operations of Texaco in Canada in 1989, and the Texaco brand vanished from the country.
The Cold Lake operations of the company are the world’s largest thermal heavy oil production facility. Imperial oil injects steam to extract bitumen from the oil sands, thus enabling it to flow to the surface. The company operates 4 plants in the area, Mahihkan, Maskwa, Mahkeses, and Leming.
The Kearl oil sands project is found north of Fort McMurray and jointly owned by ExxonMobil Canada and Imperial Oil. The development plan aims at enhancing development, execution, and marketing. Syncrude is one important site and among the largest crude oil production facilities in the world. It is found in the Athabasca region. Imperial Oil has 25 percent ownership in Syncrude Canada and is one of the founders of this mining operation.
Imperial Oil also explores for, develops, and produces hydrocarbons off the coasts of Canada. The company has ownership in the Sable offshore energy project, which is a key gas-producing venture. Production began in 1999.
The company operates four refineries in Dartmouth, Sarnia, Nanticoke, and Strathcona. The Strathcona refinery is the largest refinery owned by Imperial Oil, situated on the outskirts of Edmonton. It is also among the largest refining plants on the territory of Canada. Sarnia is a petroleum research facility, a chemical manufacturing plant, and a refinery, making it one of the most integrated manufacturing sites in Canada. The Dartmouth refinery began operations during the First World War (1918) and was the first refinery built in Atlantic Canada. The Nanticoke refinery is situated outside Hamilton and on Lake Erie’s northern shore. This refinery creates a variety of essential products sold in Quebec and on the US market. Its selection of petroleum products includes diesel, aviation fuel, gasoline, heavy fuel oil, home heating fuel, and asphalt.
Among the company’s main competitors are BHP Billiton Limited, Ashland Inc., and Abraxas Petroleum Corporation.
