North America will become the fastest growing oil-producing region outside OPEC in the next five years, with output estimated to jump 11 per cent, the International Energy Agency says.
The region is likely to see output climb 1.5 million barrels a day to 15.6 million by 2016, mostly because of increased output from Alberta's oilsands and U.S. onshore shale formations, the Paris-based adviser to oil-consuming nations said Thursday in its Medium-Term Oil and Gas Markets report.
ExxonMobil's Canadian unit is investing $10 billion US in the Kearl oilsands project, and companies including EOG Resources, Chesapeake Energy and SandRidge Energy have each committed about $1 billion US in the past two years to produce oil from U.S. geological formations such as the Bakken Shale in North Dakota.
"North America is now seen as the strongest-growing non-OPEC region," the report said, citing "upward revisions to U.S. onshore crude from tight oil formations" and higher projections from Canadian natural gas liquids and oilsands.
Total production from Canada was forecast to rise by 1.3 million barrels a day to 4.7 million.
In the IEA's last medium-term outlook, in December, the largest downward revision to production outside the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries came from the Canadian oilsands. The Dec. 10 report cut almost 400,000 barrels a day from previously forecast output saying "a degree of slippage is evident." Thursday's report says projections "are seen higher."
