Oil reserves in Canada

[4] Canada has a highly sophisticated energy industry and is both an importer and exporter of oil and refined products.

Instead, it must be mined, heated, or diluted with solvents to allow it to be produced, and must be upgraded to lighter oil to be usable by refineries.

[6] Analysts estimate that a price of $30 to $40 per barrel is required to make new oil sands production profitable.

[2] In recent years prices have greatly exceeded those levels and the Alberta government expects $116 billion worth of new oil sands projects to be undertaken between 2008 and 2017.

According to Statistics Canada, by September, 2006 unemployment rates in Alberta had fallen to record low levels[7] and per-capita incomes had risen to double the Canadian average.