Canada has the third largest world oil reservation, 170 billion barrels of oil that can be recovered economically within today’s technology. The bright side of this high oil reservation in Alberta is that the North American countries would depend less on Middle East oil, and potentially could reduce the oil price. However many obstacles are presented to the Canadian government and other large oil firms. Geographic, Pipes and capital are three factors that restrains Canada oil output to only 3.5m oil barrels per day, which is half that of America.

Oil reservation in Canada has its importance as it is now and in foreseeable future it will still be irreplaceable fuel in many part of industry. Having the oil sand means tax money to the government, improving national economy, and help Canadian oil firms to grow. Although oil sand is making less profit because it is costly to extract, it is perhaps beneficial for Canadian economy in the long run. At the moment, Canadian oil firms are not capable to extract oil by itself and must rely on international firms. By not fully extracting now means in the future more Canadian firms would have the opportunity to extract the oil, improving oil industry in Canada overall and may even boost nation’s economy.

Sources

http://www.economist.com/news/business/21566686-become-energy-giant-canada-needs-capital-people-and-pipes-sands-grime