Kurt Price hosts Live With Kurt Price, Local information forLloydminster and area.
The ribbon cutting at Strathcona Resources’ Meota Central facility. Photo by Kurt Price, Live with Kurt Price
MEOTA – The optimism surrounding the oil and gas industry at the 2026 Lloydminster Heavy Oil Show carried into another major announcement on Sept. 21, as Strathcona Resources celebrated the grand opening of Meota Central, the company’s newest thermal oil facility in Saskatchewan.
Meota Central is one of Strathcona’s most significant development projects and one of the largest SAGD oil facilities in Saskatchewan. Located near Strathcona’s existing Meota operations, the facility uses SAGD technology to recover heavy oil from deep underground. Meota Central also represents a significant milestone for Strathcona as its first end-to-end development project.
Executive Chairman of Strathcona Resources Adam Waterous, speaking candidly in front of a group of dignitaries, community leaders and industry stakeholders, said Saskatchewan is the best place in the world to invest, citing Saskatchewan’s royalty regime, regulatory approval times and water-recycling requirements.
Strathcona Resources’ Meota Central facility. Photo courtesy Strathcona Resources
The facility opened ahead of schedule and under budget in June and created 22 permanent jobs and another 30 indirect jobs. Waterous said, “The facility adds about 12,000 barrels per day of production capacity.”
That’s something Premier Scott Moe can get on board with, stating, “We’re sitting, I think, today at about 450,000 barrels in the province, looking and targeted to go to 600,000 barrels. I don’t think that’s going to be a difficult target for us to achieve if we continue to work together and we have a federal partner at the table that is taking those steps.”
He added, “In fact, I think that 600,000 barrels, we’re going to have a tremendous opportunity to go far beyond that.”
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Moe credited the industry with being ready and prepared when the opportunity presented itself and said he is seeing “ An approachability with the federal government that we’ve not seen in a decade.”
“So I believe, I truly believe, notwithstanding challenges that we’ll have to work through, we have once in at least a decade opportunity to actually be able to attract that investment, to expand the production that we have, expand the opportunities that we have in our communities in this part of the world.
“We have a nation that is finally starting to talk about energy security in a much more realistic way.”
Strathcona Resources’ Meota Central facility. Photo courtesy Strathcona Resources
Moe says Saskatchewan is currently home to two of the largest investments in Canadian history, the Bell AI Data Centre, valued at roughly $52 billion when the associated natural gas power plant is included, and BHP’s massive Jansen potash mine.
Moe says the projects are evidence of an unprecedented level of private-sector investment taking place in Saskatchewan.
He also pointed to the importance of Saskatchewan’s potash industry, saying, “And despite comments today about the U.S. purchasing Belarusian potash, it is Canadian potash that is going to be the sustainable, logical — the ethical provider of that resource, even to the United States of America in the years ahead.”
“I talked about $100 billion invested in the province that is currently being deployed.
“I can have a line of sight on the next $100 billion that can be private-sector capital that can be deployed in this industry.
“And I’m telling you, a significant amount of it is in this industry right here. A significant amount of it is in this part of the province right here.”
Strathcona Resources’ Meota Central facility. Photo courtesy Strathcona Resources
For Strathcona Resources, its investment in Saskatchewan will not slow down. It’s only going to grow, with Waterous saying the company is talking about roughly quintupling its Saskatchewan thermal production over 10 years.
“What we are looking to do is increase our thermal production in Saskatchewan from just over 30 to, over a 10-year period, to 150,000 barrels a day.”
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Waterous says Strathcona’s resource position in Saskatchewan is a major reason behind those growth plans.
“As we’ve been building our business here, by our estimates, we think that Strathcona currently owns about 70 per cent of the original oil in place that’s going to be developed in Saskatchewan.”
In fact, he said Strathcona aims to become Saskatchewan’s largest thermal oil producer:
“We think that over the next 10 years, we’ll be likely be probably the largest thermal oil producer in Saskatchewan — is our objective.”
Strathcona Resources’ Meota Central facility. Photo courtesy Strathcona Resources
Waterous says that growth also means building a workforce that is rooted in the region.
“We really like the fact that our team here — almost all of our field team — are local, work here, live in the region, are building careers here, building their families here, which we think really helps to support a strong culture for our company.”
Strathcona says it is planning further expansion of its thermal oil operations in Saskatchewan, including additional development at Plover Lake.
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