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<\/a><\/p>\nMore than 80 per cent of the energy humanity consumes comes from fossil fuels (oil, natural gas and coal). Long-term trends demonstrate that we will depend on fossil fuels for decades to come.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Figure\u00a01 shows global primary energy consumption by source for all our needs: electricity, industry, transportation and heat.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The key to this graph is that we live in a time of energy addition \u2013 we\u2019re using more energy from every source, all the time. Nothing is being displaced because there are more people on Earth every year, and each one of us wants a modern, energy-rich lifestyle.<\/p>\n
Canada\u2019s unique blessing as a budding energy superpower is that we are or have the potential to be a big player in all major categories of energy production, including oil and gas, nuclear power, hydroelectricity, renewables, lithium, hydrogen and coal.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Our strength lies in our huge and diverse geological resources.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Oil and Gas<\/p>\n
Leading Canada\u2019s enormous resource base is oil and gas. Geologists have discovered oil and gas in sedimentary basins across western, northern, central and eastern Canada (Fig.\u00a02).\u00a0<\/p>\n Regarding oil, people think immediately about Alberta\u2019s oil sands, which give Canada the fourth-largest global oil reserves. These reserves are being systematically and efficiently produced at rates that will support domestic consumption and exports for decades to come.\u00a0<\/p>\n We also have substantial oil reserves and production from traditional reservoirs in Western Canada and offshore Eastern Canada, where the Hibernia oilfield is a global supergiant.<\/p>\n But there\u2019s more. These reserves represent only oil that has been discovered and proven economically viable to develop using existing technology.\u00a0<\/p>\n Our resource base \u2013 oil deposits we have identified but haven\u2019t yet built the infrastructure or technology to access \u2013 is huge, diverse and world-leading.\u00a0<\/p>\n Canada\u2019s untapped oil resources include untested oil sands plays, oil hosted in shales, undeveloped conventional oil discoveries in the Far North and huge oil resources off our eastern coast that are only now being explored.\u00a0<\/p>\n Canada not only supplies all its own oil needs, but it is also the fourth-leading oil exporter in the world today by volume. It has the resources to maintain and improve that position in the long term.<\/p>\n The story is similar for natural gas.\u00a0<\/p>\n Our traditional gas reserves were developed decades ago to fill our own needs and for export to the United States. Horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing technologies have increased our gas reserves base immensely over the past 20 years as we develop world-class shale gas plays like the Montney Formation in west-central Alberta and northeastern British Columbia.\u00a0<\/p>\n And like our oil resources, Canada\u2019s gas resources have grown over time \u2013 with shale gas plays holding literally centuries of producing potential in Alberta, B.C., and the Northwest Territories.\u00a0<\/p>\n Other plays in Quebec, Ontario and the Maritimes have been mapped and await validation by drilling more wells. And let\u2019s not forget massive but remote conventional gas discoveries and resource potential in the Northwest Territories, offshore Newfoundland and Labrador, and offshore Nova Scotia.<\/p>\n Nuclear Power \u2013 Uranium\u00a0<\/p>\n Electricity generation from nuclear fission has been an important component of global energy supply since the 1970s, and is rising again today (Fig.\u00a01). Growth is accelerating as more people in more countries appreciate nuclear\u2019s reliability and low emissions profile.<\/p>\n Canada is a nuclear leader with its CANDU nuclear generation technology, but also because of its rich uranium resources.\u00a0<\/p>\n Uranium is found in igneous and metamorphic rocks of the Canadian Shield, the geological heart of Central and Eastern Canada (orange area in Fig. 2). We have active mines in northern Saskatchewan and a rich inventory of uranium exploration prospects and resources in Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and the Northwest Territories (Fig. 3).\u00a0<\/p>\n Canada is the world\u2019s second-leading producer and exporter of uranium, supplying our own nuclear reactors and many others across the globe \u2013 and has the resource base to improve that position as nuclear demand grows.<\/p>\n The World Nuclear Association has some great information about Canada\u2019s uranium resources at https:\/\/world-nuclear.org\/information-library\/country-profiles\/countries-a-f\/canada-uranium<\/a>, and the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission has more on Canadian uranium mines and mills at https:\/\/www.cnsc-ccsn.gc.ca\/eng\/uranium\/mines-and-mills\/<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n Hydroelectricity<\/p>\n Canada is also a leader in another energy source high on the global supply chart: hydroelectricity. We produce more than 60 per cent of our electricity from hydro, particularly in British Columbia, Manitoba, Ontario and Quebec.\u00a0<\/p>\n Although somewhat indirectly, Canada\u2019s geology is responsible for our rich hydro output and potential because geological processes formed the mountains of Western Canada and the extensive uplands of Eastern Canada that provide the topographic relief that gives energy to water rushing downhill to hydroelectric dams.<\/p>\n Carbon Capture and Storage \u2013 and Lithium<\/p>\n Not only do sedimentary rocks in Canada\u2019s sedimentary basins host our fossil fuel resources, they contain immense volumes of highly saline water, much left over from the seas that deposited the sediments millions of years ago.\u00a0<\/p>\n This presents two critically important opportunities in today\u2019s evolving energy picture.<\/p>\n The first is carbon capture and storage (CCS), which captures and stores carbon dioxide securely underground to reduce net greenhouse gas emissions.\u00a0<\/p>\n We can inject carbon dioxide into subsurface reservoirs where it can replace produced oil and gas, dissolve in the \u201coceans\u201d of saline brine water, and eventually crystallize to form new minerals deep underground.\u00a0<\/p>\n CCS potential exists in all Canada\u2019s sedimentary basins, but particularly in Western Canada, where we already have enormous knowledge and infrastructure in place.\u00a0<\/p>\n Alberta has designated 25 potential carbon \u201chubs\u201d \u2013 massive projects to gather carbon dioxide and inject it into the best reservoir rocks. Since 2005, two operating CCS projects in the province (Quest and the Alberta Carbon Trunk Line) have sequestered approximately 15 million tonnes of CO2.\u00a0<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Hayes-Figure-2-1-1.png\")
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