The United States doesn’t just share a border with Canada; it’s also the country’s largest trading partner. Canada exports $570 billion worth of goods to the United States, accounting for more than 75% of the country’s $770 billion in total exports.
By comparison, Canada ships only $15.1 billion worth of goods to the United Kingdom and $28.6 billion to China. Canada holds about 9.7% of the world’s oil reserves.
While Canada officially holds the world’s third-largest oil reserves, there is some evidence that this may be a conservative estimate. There are two factors at play here. For starters, the Saudi Arabian oil industry hasn’t revised its official reserve figures since 1988, and in 2011, Wikileaks revealed that actual oil reserves may be 40% lower than OPEC claims.
Meanwhile, a new analysis of Alberta’s oil fields suggests the province’s reserves could significantly exceed those of Saudi Arabia, making it the owner of the largest crude oil reserves on the planet.