Alberta has nearly six times the natural gas it thought, putting Canada among world's top 10

Alberta’s proven natural gas reserves have increased nearly sixfold to 130 trillion cubic feet since they were last assessed, according to a new study, giving Canada’s oilpatch leaders something to show off this week at a Texas oil summit in hopes of turning heads and capital flows northward.

The new study, which also boosted Alberta’s proven oil reserves by seven billion barrels, comes amid growing unease in the United States that the era of shale growth is ending, dampening the outlook for that country’s oil and gas production.

Despite U.S. President Donald Trump‘s bombastic calls to “drill, baby, drill,” American energy executives at the CERAWeek by S&P Global conference in Houston are signalling slower growth in 2025, with a possible peak in U.S. oil production arriving in the near future.

Peak oil predictions have never gone over well at the conference, which is close to the U.S.’s most prolific oilfield, the Permian Basin.

“It’s a very touchy topic down here, that the Permian is this infinite resource that will always keep going,” Mike Verney, executive vice-president of Calgary-based petroleum reserves audit firm McDaniel & Associates Consultants Ltd. “But the Permian is no longer in its first inning.”

The region spanning parts of West Texas and southwestern New Mexico has been the primary driver of U.S. oil and gas production growth in recent years.

Other shale oil plays have plateaued or declined, but Permian output hit a record 6.3 million barrels per day in 2024, accounting for about half of the U.S.’s total production last year, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA).

But there are signs that the Permian may be entering its twilight, with producers experiencing well-productivity issues