Venezuelans Leave Mark on Alberta's Oil Sands Boom

A decade ago, hundreds of Venezuelan professionals, as many as 3,000 by recent estimates, arrived in Alberta's oil sands boom. They came from Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) after a political crisis under Hugo Chávez.

The group, mostly engineers and technicians, had experience working with heavy crude, almost identical to Alberta's bitumen. 'When we arrived in Alberta, we knew heavy crude as if it were our own,' said Carmen Galarraga, a Venezuelan engineer who worked at Intevep before migrating to Canada.

The Venezuelans' expertise was valuable to the Canadian oil industry. Between 2004 and 2010, annual admissions of Venezuelans to Canada doubled, with Calgary, Fort McMurray, and Edmonton being their primary destinations. The core group consisted of around 300-400 families in 2006-2008.

'We were useful from day one,' Pedro Pereira said, a process engineer who led research at the University of Calgary. 'Venezuela had spent decades producing extra-heavy crude in the Orinoco Belt, almost identical to Alberta's bitumen.' The coincidence made the Venezuelans' contributions significant.