Canada’s Energy Resources
There are 3 reasons why the world is becoming
so dependant on energy:
1. The population of the world is growing so
more energy is needed.
2. Standards of living are increasing in
emerging industrialized countries like
China, India and Malaysia, therefore their
need for energy is increasing as well.
3. People in industrialized countries like
Canada and the US continue to improve
standards of living by using cheap energy.
 Canadians
are lucky because we possess
more energy than we are currently using.
 Much of our oil, gas and coal is exported in
exchange for money, which is then used for
imports.
 Much of the world does not have an
abundance of resources like Canada, so we
have many buyers for our energy resources.
 Canada’s energy resources include minerals
like coal, gas and oil, as well as
hydroelectricity and nuclear energy.
 Coal
energy is not as popular as it once was, but it
is still used today.
 The biggest power plants in Canada use coal.
 Coke: A substance made from coal. Used in the
smelting of steel.
 Japan and China buy a lot of coal from Canada
because of their auto-making factories.
 Higher grades of coal are sent to Asian markets
because they produce more energy per tonne,
which makes the cost of shipping worth it.
 The Great Lakes region has large steel and
automotive industries therefore it requires much
coking coal.
Most of Canada’s coal comes from Alberta.
 Coal mining is a dangerous job because of
poisonous gases, cave-ins and cold, damp
conditions.
 Coal is not popular as a fuel because it creates a
lot of pollution.
 Coal releases 29% more carbon into the air than
oil and 80% more than natural gas.
 Adding more carbon to the atmosphere increases
greenhouse gases.
 These gases cause heat to be trapped in the
atmosphere which affects climate,
creates acid rain and smog.

 Without
oil, our industries would fail.
 It is used to make gas, cosmetics, tar and
mostly all plastics.
 Oil is trapped in porous rock in the lower
layers of the earth’s crust.
 It is trapped between 2 non-porous layers- an
oil sandwich!
 Geologist can’t see into the earth’s crust so
it is difficult to know where the oil has
collected.
 Remote
sensing is used to find oil underground.
 Once it is determined that there is a possibility of
oil, a hole is drilled.
 Drilling is expensive and time consuming, and often
the well is dry.
 If there is oil (a gusher), however, there is a lot of
money to be made!
 Oil has been found under the continental shelves of
the east and north coasts of Canada.
 Hibernia,
Terra Nova and White Rose are
currently producing oil.
 Hebron is expected to start producing by
2017.
 Oil is non-renewable and therefore will only
produce for a limited amount of time.
 Hebron is projected to produce for 25 years.
 Hebron is located in iceberg alley so it has an
ice belt to help deal with collisions.
 If large oil spills occur, there is a large
chance of an ecological disaster.
Found under the non-porous layer of rock called
caprock. (fig. 7.4)
 It is located above oil and usually extracted first.
 Pipelines are used to transport gas, rather than
trucks because it is unstable and can explode or
evaporate easily.
 It can be converted to a liquid before
transportation but that drives up costs.
 Natural gas is fairly cheap, it is cleaner than oil
or coal, and it produces less carbon dioxide.
 Used for home heating, in power plants and in
some cars.
