Canadian oil sands come back into limelight as U.S. shale growth slows, Enverus reports

(WO) — Enverus Intelligence Research (EIR), a subsidiary of Enverus, has released a report that examines where Canadian oil sands assets fall on the North American cost curve.

“The often-overlooked Canadian oil sands represent nearly 40% of North America’s sub-$50 WTI breakeven oil resource,” said Dane Gregoris, managing director with EIR. 

“Oil sands businesses are particularly attractive to global investors today because of their long duration oil resource and newfound egress. This is especially relevant at a time where U.S. shale oil growth is slowing, and low-cost drilling inventory is becoming scarcer south of the border,” Gregoris said.

Key takeaways from the report:

• The Canadian oil sands represent nearly 40% of North America’s sub-$50 WTI breakeven undeveloped oil resource and offer a compelling opportunity for investors and producers to extend duration in E&P asset portfolios.
• Oil sands output exceeds 3 MMbpd, the majority of which is extracted using steam-assisted gravity drainage (SAGD) or surface mining techniques.
• Integrated mining projects sit on the very low end of the North American cost curve while existing SAGD projects generally offer Permian-competitive resource breaking even between $40 and $50 WTI.