Statistics Canada
www.statcan.gc.ca
Common menu bar links
Data quality, concepts and methodology: Data quality and methodology
Archived Content
Information identified as archived is provided for reference, research or recordkeeping purposes. It is not subject to the Government of Canada Web Standards and has not been altered or updated since it was archived. Please "contact us" to request a format other than those available.
This publication presents data on the Crude Petroleum and Natural Gas Industry (NAICS 211 of the North American Industry Classification System, catalogue no.12-501-X). This industry includes establishments primarily engaged in exploration for and/or production of petroleum or natural gas from wells or tar sands, and natural gas plants processing the natural gas. In this publication, the oil sands industry is excluded from the tables which present principal statistics and labour data. However, the operating and capital expenditures of the oil sands industry are shown in text table 1 and the synthetic crude produced is included in commodity tables 4, 5 and 6.
Data presented in this publication on the supply and disposition of crude oil and equivalents and natural gas are compiled from information provided by agencies or departments of the provinces and territories responsible for the regulation of crude oil and natural gas production. As a result, 100% of oil and natural gas production by conventional or other means, whether offshore or on land, is accounted for.
Data on operating and capital expenditures are compiled from an annual survey of approximately 500 companies engaged in oil and natural gas exploration, development and production. Companies with annual capital expenditures of less than $50,000 are excluded from the survey. The response rate for the survey is very high — over 95%. As a consequence, minimal imputation is required and minimal bias resulting from non-response is introduced in these data.
Data on drilling completions and crude oil and natural gas reserves are obtained from the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (formerly Canadian Petroleum Association).
Data published in this publication are subject to a certain degree of error, be it in differences in the interpretation of the questions, or mistakes introduced during processing. Reasonable efforts are made to ensure these errors are kept within acceptable limits through careful questionnaire design, liaison with major respondents, editing of data for inconsistencies and subsequent follow-up and quality control of manual processing operations. Historically, experience has indicated that the data rarely contain a serious error.
