Does Canada have the most oil of any country?

Question

According to this article, Canada has 3 times as much oil in Alberta alone as Saudi Arabia does.

http://money.cnn.com/2008/07/10/news/international/velshi_oil_sands_boomtown/ind

ex.htm?cnn=yes

If there is so much oil there, why does the Canadian government

(1) sell oil cheaper to America than it's own citizens

(2) tax oil so much that Canadians have a brutal time paying their heating bills in the brutal cold winters.

Shouldn't Canadians be living at the same standard as Saudi citizens live?

Answer 1

Maybe they're too liberal...eh.

Answer 2

Canada has the most oil of any country in the world but it doesn't produce a lot yet.  Russia has 3 times less oil but produces 3 times more oil per year than Canada.

Canada has the potential to become the leading oil producer in the world by the time it gets enough oil drilling machines out there.  it has barely tapped its potential yet which is good because that means countries like the US haven't taken most of it yet.  

This is one reason why I think Canada's economy is very underrated right now, it has the potential to produce more oil than Saudi Arabia and much more other petroleum products but right now is not producing much at all.

That could mean a huge rise in its currency value and gdp resulting in a big increase in its nominal gdp (meaning it will easily surpass Spain and stay way ahead of Brazil and India).

Answer 3

Worldwide Proven Oil Reserves as reported in the World Oil Report, available for download in Excel format from the DOE website (amounts in billions of barrels):

Saudi Arabia 267

Canada 178

Iran 132

Iraq 115

Kuwait 104

United Arab Emirates 98

Venezuela 80

Russia 60

Libya 39

Nigeria 36

USA 21

China 18

Qatar 15

Mexico 13

Algeria 11

Brazil 11

Kazakhstan 9

Norway 8

Azerbaijan 7

India 6

Oman 5

Angola 5

Ecuador 4

Indonesia 4

United Kingdom 4

Answer 4

Canada=limited profits for oil barons because of high production costs=low production. Canada=second biggest reserves after the Saudis.

SA=260 billion barrels

Canada=180 billion barrels

I can't believe how much propaganda is out there about unlimited oil.

Answer 5

Saudi Arabia has the most oil which is 83 millions barrels of oil while Canada has 6 million barrels of oil. Saudi is number one with  the most barrels oil while Canada is19th. G= one million.

Answer 6

It's not the most oil Canada has, it beer.

Anyway you hit on a valid point. The reason fuel cost so much around the world is because most governments place up to $5 per gallon tax on it. Something that currently the government can't get away with in the US. But don't think our government isn't thinking about it.

-tcw

Answer 7

Canada's "oil" is trapped in oil sands. It's 3x more costly to extract oil from oil sands than by drilling for it. It's is also more harmful to the environment to process the "oil".

Oil is an international commodity. It cost the same world wide. Canada does not sell oil cheaper to Americans than to Canadians. The reason why fuel prices are higher in Canada is because of taxes. Canada taxes fuel more than the US. So if you want cheaper fuel, demand that the Canadian gov't cut taxes. However, you can't have low taxes an Universal Health care. There is no such thing has having a free lunch.

Canadians actually have a higher standard of living than the Saudi's. The unemployment rate in Saudi Arabia is in the double digits. The per capita GDP of Saudi Arabia is $13,600, the per capita GDP of Canada is $35,600.