MEG Energy is a pure play Canadian oil sands producer engaged in exploration in the Athabasca oil sands.
All of its oil reserves are more than 1000 ft below the surface, so the company depends on steam-assisted gravity drainage and associated technology (heavy bitumen must first be brought to the surface). The company's main thermal project is Christina Lake.
85-megawatt cogeneration plants are used to produce the steam used in SAGD which is required to bring bitumen to the surface. The excess heat and electricity produced at its plants is then sold to Alberta's power grid. Its proven reserves have been independently pegged at 1.7 Goilbbl and probable reserves 3.7 Goilbbl by GLJ Petroleum Consultants Ltd.
Only 300 Goilbbl of the 1.6 Toilbbl of bitumen in Alberta is considered recoverable under current technology. The value of those reserves is over $19.8 billion.[4]
Within nine months of going public it reached large cap company status after a small cap IPO. As recently as 2007 it was a junior oil company.[5]