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Oil Patch Insider Greenpeace, investors target Alberta oil sands developers
Greenpeace is back on one of its favorite hobby-horses – whipping the Alberta oil sands, with the backing of some British investment firms.
The environmental group’s latest report, apparently endorsed by Holden and Partners, Innovest and Co-operative Asset Management, warns BP and Royal Dutch Shell that they risk a backlash from investors by pursuing oil sands development.
Co-operative Asset manages investments of about $5.6 billion and owns shares worth about $150 million in BP and Shell, or less than 2 percent of each company.
It is trying to convince other institutional investors to impress on their super-majors that they have failed to properly weigh the potential dangers to their reputations.
Niall O’Shea, an analyst with Co-operative Asset, said BP and Shell are counting too heavily on the emerging carbon capture and storage technology to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from oil sands plants by storing them underground.
He noted that while carbon capture and storage might have an impact, the technology is unproven and won’t be available on a commercial scale for 15 years.
Investors seek dialogue O’Shea said the objective is not to stop all development.
“But it’s not clear how BP and Shell are going to manage their risks,” he told the Globe and Mail. “There (are) so many uncertainties. We’re asking for a dialogue and to understand what their position is. We want to protect our long-term investment.”
Alberta Energy Minister Mel Knight countered that his government will achieve its goal of cutting greenhouse gas emissions from the oil sands by 14 percent by 2050.
Though carbon capture and storage is still in its infancy, Knight said it is “definitely” the answer to lowering emissions, noting that EnCana’s Weyburn oil field in Saskatchewan, where CO2 is pumped into an aging reservoir, has established the viability of the technology.
Knight said Greenpeace and the British funds are taking a short-sighted view.
Shell said it is taking independent steps to halve emissions from its own oil sands operations by 2010, and BP said it is taking a proactive approach to ensure that the oil sands play an important role in energy security.
Greenpeace sued Meanwhile, Greenpeace is being sued for C$120,000 by Syncrude Canada, which said activists from the environmental organization trespassed on the Syncrude site in July as part of their campaign to halt rising crude production from the oil sands.
The Syncrude consortium is seeking an injunction to prevent Greenpeace from entering the site in the future, saying the activists are putting themselves and consortium employees at risk.
Greenpeace said the lawsuit is designed to “financially cripple a nonprofit organization and intimidate critics of the tar sands.”
—Gary Park
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