The BC Oil and Gas Commission (OGC) is a regulatory agency that oversees the oil and gas industry in the province of British Columbia. It is a Crown corporation whose purview includes upstream exploration, downstream development, pipeline transportation and environmental reclamation.

TransAlta Corporation is an electricity power generator and utility company based in Calgary, Alberta, and the largest investor-owned energy generator in the country. It operates coal, natural gas, wind, solar and hydro power generation facilities in Canada, the United States and Australia.  

Shell Canada (“Shell”) is a subsidiary of Netherlands-based Royal Dutch Shell plc (RDS) and one of Canada’s largest integrated oil and gas companies. Its wide-ranging operations include exploring for and producing oil and natural gas, as well as processing, refining, marketing and distributing oil and gas products.

The Canadian Energy Pipeline Association (CEPA) is an industry association representing 97 per cent of Canada’s oil and natural gas pipeline companies, making it a key legitimator. The total volume of fossil fuels moved by CEPA members is immense, amounting to 1.2 million barrels of liquid petroleum products and 5.4 trillion cubic feet of natural gas in 2013.¹ Its members include several of our Top 50, including Enbridge Pipelines Inc., ATCO Pipelines, TransCanada Pipelines Ltd. and Trans Mountain Corporation.

Enbridge Inc. is a publicly traded energy infrastructure firm. The company operates the world’s longest crude oil and liquids pipeline system,² delivering approximately 2.9 million barrels of crude oil each day through its Mainline and Express pipelines—over half of all US-bound Canadian production.³ Enbridge is also Canada’s largest natural gas distribution company, with natural gas and natural gas liquids pipelines across North America and the Gulf of Mexico.⁴ It has a growing interest in natural gas storage and midstream operations and is increasing its operations in power transmission.

The Canadian Gas Association (CGA) is an industry association representing and advancing the interests of Canada’s natural gas distribution sector. Its members consist of natural gas distribution and transmission companies, equipment manufacturers and other service providers.

Canadian Natural Resources Limited (CNRL) is one of the largest oil and gas companies operating in Canada today, and Canada’s largest natural gas producer.⁵ It is also the largest private landowner in Western Canada, second only to the government.⁷ Its domestic assets include a mix of natural gas, light crude oil, heavy crude oil, bitumen and synthetic crude oil in British Columbia (BC) and Alberta.

ATCO is a diversified corporation with strong roots in Canadian energy sectors. Its global subsidiaries provide a variety of energy-related services, including prefabricated housing and logistics, pipelines and distribution, and retail energy.

Pembina Pipeline Corporation is an oil and gas pipeline and infrastructure company based in Calgary, Alberta. Pembina operates conventional oil, heavy crude and natural gas pipelines, as well as providing storage and midstream oil and gas services in Canada and the United States.

LNG Canada is a joint venture consortium—made up of Shell, PETRONAS, PetroChina, Mitsubishi and Korea Gas Corporation (KOGAS)—that plans to build a liquified natural gas (LNG) terminal in the town of Kitimat, British Columbia (BC). The facility will liquefy fracked gas from BC and Alberta so it can be shipped internationally by tanker. LNG is primarily destined for the markets of consortium partners (China, Japan, Korea and Malaysia). In 2018, the joint partners made a final investment decision to proceed with construction of Phase One,⁸ with plans to produce 14 million tonnes of LNG per year,⁹ and potential to double that capacity through a future Phase Two.

The China National Offshore Oil Corporation Ltd. (CNOOC) is one of the largest oil and gas corporations in the world. CNOOC’s Canadian operations, formerly known as Nexen Inc, include assets in oil sands, fracked gas and offshore oil drilling throughout the country. The following case study emphasizes CNOOC’s Canadian operations only.

Crescent Point Energy Corporation is an oil and gas exploration and development company based in Calgary, Alberta. The firm was established in 2001, and following numerous mergers and acquisitions, it has grown into one of the largest light and medium crude oil producers in Canada today. It is Saskatchewan’s largest oil producer and has been “by far the most active driller in the country for the past several years.”¹⁰ Crescent Point also exploits natural gas liquids and natural gas, totalling roughly 30 per cent of its 2017 production levels.¹¹