Canada's major light oil pool may be abandoned by the energy industry as it is very costly and not very easy to exploit.

Penn West is the region that covers much of the west-central Alberta and is one of the topmost players in Cardium oil play. Though, the industry knew that the region had oil since 1950, but earlier taking it out was an uphill task.

Fleury said, "The rock is tight. The economics are tough. It just didn't lend itself to a level of development commensurate with the size of the pool".

The Cardium region has huge amounts of high-quality oils and various companies are looking forward to the same for the past few decades.

Daylight Resources Trust is planning to buy West Energy Ltd. by paying $570 million in cash as well as in stock so it could increase its holdings in the area.

Daylight Executive Vice-President Ted Hanbury said, "Those kinds of opportunities with large oil reserves in place and large lower-risk drilling inventories don't actually come around very often. So when a play like the Cardium emerges, I think it gathers the attention of a lot of companies".