The province of Alberta is allocated approximately 9,660 million cubic meters of water per year. The oil and gas sector uses around 2.3 cubic meters of water for every cubic meter of crude oil produced, mostly for in situ mining, drilling, refining, and bitumen extraction, with the majority being recycled. The livestock industry, including beef cows, pigs, dairy cows, and poultry also uses significant amounts of water daily. The actual water usage by sector in Alberta is: municipal 502 million cubic meters, oil and gas 4,279 million cubic meters, agriculture 119 million cubic meters, manufacturing 5 million cubic meters, and other 0.5 million cubic meters per year.

2. Question:
How much water is allocated to the
province of Alberta in a given year?
9660 - M
3
m
- Express answer in millions of m3
Hint: 1 m3 = 1000L
= 2000 500ml water bottles
= 4*10-4 amount of water in standard Olympic pool

3. Alberta’s Oil and Gas sector
• 2.3
3
m
of water/1
3
m
of Crude Oil
• Used for:
– In situ mining
– Drilling
– Refining
– Bitumen extraction
• Majority of the water is recycled

4. Alberta’s Livestock industry
Beef:
5,930,000
head
Pork:
2,010,000
head
Dairy:
77,280
cows
Poultry:
3,375,763
birds
•Avg. H20/beef cow/day: 55L
•Avg. H20/pig/day: 7L
•Avg. H20/dairy cow/day: 90L
•Avg. H20/bird/day: 0.470L

5. Actual water usage by sector (M m3/year)
502 4279 119 5
9660 M m3 /year
3
0.5