Canada's missing barrels
The majors have carried billions of barrels of oil sands reserves on their books. The price downturn is making them disappear
This era of lower-for-longer oil prices has raised a thorny question for Canada's oil sands producers: at what point does oil in the ground cease to exist on the balance sheet? The answer is when the US Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) says so. The question became more acute after ExxonMobil was forced to write off 3.5bn barrels of its oil sands reserves in its annual 10-K filing. It amounts to the entire booked reserve base of its Kearl oil sands mine that was commissioned in 2013 at a cost of C$12.9bn ($9.81bn) and another 200m barrels of bitumen at its Cold Lake in situ project. The oil sands writedown slashed ExxonMobil's proved reserves by around 20%. ConocoPhillips followed suit, c
Also in this section
12 December 2025
The latest edition of our annual Outlook publication, titled 'The shape of energy to come: Creating unique pathways and managing shifting alliances', is available now
12 December 2025
The federal government is working with Alberta to improve the country’s access to Asian markets and reduce dependence on the US, but there are challenges to their plans
11 December 2025
The removal of the ban on oil and gas exploration and an overhaul of the system sends all the right messages for energy security, affordability and sustainability
10 December 2025
The economic and environmental cost of the seven-year exploration ban will be felt long after its removal
