Geoscience: Energy resources

The Geological Survey of Canada (GSC) has geoscientific information and knowledge about Canada’s energy resources that can help your company, government or community answer questions about energy-related resource development and how it might affect the surrounding environment. Use our data to make evidence-based decisions about land use. You’ll improve your chances of success in creating environmentally sound resource developments and in improving the environmental performance and efficiency of your operation.

Why it matters

There is a growing demand in Canada for clean energy sources and environmentally sustainable energy resource development so we can reach the Government of Canada’s target of net-zero CO² emissions by 2050. We’re working to support this critical shift, and to improve the chances that industry will succeed in energy resource extraction (helium, natural gas and the earth’s geothermal heat) and injections (sinks such as carbon capture, utilization and storage).

We’re redirecting our research efforts from frontier petroleum basins toward less conventional energy-related research and development, including geothermal and offshore renewable energy solutions. The resulting information should allow Canada to meet its energy needs while reaching environmental targets and providing the science to help us better protect our coastal and marine areas. Canada has been, and must continue to be a global leader in these efforts.

What we’re doing

Our research explores new energy sources, such as geothermal and offshore renewables, and helps ensure that tight oil and unconventional gas can be safely extracted with minimal environmental impact. Several GSC programs support this work and advance the body of knowledge and tools that industry and governments at all levels can draw upon. The GSC’s contributing programs and initiatives and their work are outlined below:

GeoEnergy Program (under development)
Marine Geoscience Program (MGP) (includes geoscience initiatives for marine conservation targets, marine spatial planning, and marine renewables)
GEM-GeoNorth

Supporting the shift to clean energy

Boosting the fledgling geothermal industry and other renewable energy industries by assessing low-emission, clean-energy sources and geothermal potential
Working to identify the best localities and seabed geology for offshore renewable energy development
Researching underground storage options for gases, to support carbon sequestration as well as to help store gases used in low-carbon energy solutions (e.g., hydrogen, high-pressure air)

Indigenous relations

At the GSC, we believe deeply in establishing working relationships with Indigenous communities. We’re working to co-develop more geoscience activities that support informed land management and decisions in Indigenous communities, based on their needs. It’s important that we help build geoscience capacity within Indigenous communities so they can incorporate geoscience knowledge into their land-management decision-making processes. We will continue to deepen our relationships with Indigenous communities, with respect and cooperation, while recognizing their traditional knowledge.

Examples of our work together:

Our former Geoscience for New Energy Supply program (now GeoEnergy program), in collaboration with Parks Canada, incorporated traditional knowledge of the Haida people into a research study. That helped create the conceptual model of the thermal system at Hotspring Island in Haida Gwaii, British Columbia.

Featured tools and data

Browse these pre-filtered topic results on Canada’s open data portal or search the entire collection:

Featured publications

You can conduct your own Open Science and Technology Repository (OSTR) search, or browse pre-filtered results by topic:

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