Canadian oil sands production is expected to reach 3.7 million barrels per day by 2030, S&P Global said on Thursday, raising the analytics firm’s 2030 production outlook for the country for the first time in half a decade.

S&P Global raised its output estimate for 2030 by 140,000 barrels per day from last year’s outlook.

“The Canadian oil sands have entered an ‘era of optimization’,” said Kevin Birn of S&P Global Commodity Insights, adding that moving production to high-potential areas adjacent to existing development is the most significant contributor to output growth.

Canada is expected to continue to post record production and export levels in the future, according to S&P Global. However, growth is expected to slow in the mid-2020s and decline in the early 2030s. This is due to the long flat production profile of Canadian oil sands assets.

Imperial Oil Ltd IMO.TO, Cenovus Energy Inc CVE.TO, Canadian Natural Resources Ltd CNQ.TO, ConocoPhillips COP.N and Suncor Energy Inc SU.TO are major producers of crude from the oil sands, which hold the third-largest proven oil reserves in the world, according to the Canadian government.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Arshreet Singh; Editing by Maju Samuel)