International intellectual property

GLOBAL INVESTOR 2.06 Basics — 18
Alberta
Alberta’s 662,000 square kilometers make
it the fourth largest province in Canada.
3.2 million people live in Alberta. Calgary
and Edmonton are its most important
cities, with one million inhabitants each.
Peace River
Athabasca
Edmonton•
Cold Lake
• Calgary
Natural gas
Similar to crude oil, most of Canada’s
natural gas deposits are found in Alberta.
The province is home to over 80% of
Canadian gas reserves. Alberta produces
over 16 billion cubic feet of natural gas
per day, a large part of which is exported
to the USA.
Residential
construction boom
The province of Alberta is in the midst of a
residential construction boom, with 40,000
new residences (homes and apartments) under
construction in 2005. This corresponds to a
year-on-year increase of 13%. In 2005, prices
of new homes rose by 6.9% in Calgary
and 6.4% in Edmonton, compared to the year
before.
Figure 1: Production of crude oil in Canada
The production of crude oil from oil sands is expected to
surpass the 1 million barrel a day mark for the first time
this year and to continue rising to approximately 2.7 million
barrels of oil a day by the year 2015.
Barrels per day (millions)
4.0
3.5
3.0
Oil sands in situ
2.5
2.0
Oil sands mining
1.5
1.0
0.5
Total conventional
0
2001 2003 2005 2007 2009 2011 2013 2015
Source: Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP)