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No quick carbon fixes Oil sands leader argues ‘absolute’ limits on oil sands’ GHG would burden sector; Imperial boss says answers could take 100 years Gary Park For Petroleum News
Two leading players in the Alberta oil sands — the flashpoint of Canada’s climate-change wrangling — have answered criticism that the sector is not doing enough to explain itself.
In the process, they got to grips with the range of challenges facing those seeking answers to greenhouse gas emissions.
Marcel Coutu, chief executive officer of Canadian Oil Sands Trust, which owns 36.7 percent of the giant Syncrude Canada operation, said oil sands producers should be allowed to raise GHGs, even if that means forcing other industrial sectors to shoulder a heavier share of meeting national climate change goals. Bruce March, chief executive officer of Imperial Oil, said it has taken 100 years to create the GHG problem and it will probably take another 100 years to meet growing global energy demand while dealing with climate change concerns.
Their comments came a month after Peter Voser, the new chief executive officer of Royal Dutch Shell, told a Calgary business summit that industry and governments have failed to promote the oil sands as a key answer to the energy needs of Asia and the wider world.
Arguing that oil sands opponents have done an effective job of trashing the resource, he called on industry and governments to play a more active role in promoting the oil sands and making a case for the future importance of unconventional oil.
New Alberta publicity campaign The Alberta government has recently launched a three-year, C$25 million publicity campaign to counter some of the negative publicity from environmental groups who have labeled the oil sands as “dirty oil.”
The Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, whose member companies account for more than 90 percent of Canada’s oil and natural gas production, has also admitted it is lagging in the battle for hearts and minds and has pledged to answer public concerns about the industry’s environmental impact.
But Voser insists the oil sands could be taking a larger international role in energy markets by building pipelines to the British Columbia coast, opening up tanker routes to Asia-Pacific markets.
Speaking at the same Calgary conference, federal Environment Minister Jim Prentice agreed Canada needs to be more active in promoting its technological gains in energy production.
“Canada’s role must be perceived as the most environmentally cautious producer of energy of all kinds, from green energy to hydrocarbons, in the world,” he said.
Intensity-based limits proposed But Coutu warned that if the oil sands face an absolute limit on their GHGs, regardless of increasing output, that would “put a very, very heavy burden on a business that is in a growth mode” and a key driver of the Canadian economy.
Rather that stifle oil sands output, the Canadian government should impose intensity-based limits, reducing per-barrel GHGs, leaving other industries to pick up the slack, he said.
“What we have to do is prioritize what is most important to the economy and our quality of life,” Coutu said. “At the end of the day I don’t think there is a single element of our economy that is more important than energy.”
He told the editorial board of The Globe and Mail that the vast majority of GHGs result from the consumption of energy by motor vehicles, airplanes and heating homes and commercial buildings — rather than the production phase.
He said the oil sands account for only 5 percent of Canada’s total emissions, suggesting that figure should be measured from a global perspective.
Coutu said Canada’s net export energy role should also be taken into account, because Canada could end up being saddled with the environmental costs of products that are used in other countries.
March, speaking to the Calgary Chamber of Commerce on Oct. 15, said the industry and governments must work on policies that allow energy to be developed from all available sources — such as wind, solar, nuclear, hydroelectric and geothermal power — not just oil and gas.
“We also require new transformative technologies such as second generation biofuels, which require long-term research investments, but will have the potential to effect change on a global scale,” he said.
Exxon investing in algae ExxonMobil, which owns 69.6 percent of Imperial, is planning to invest more than C$600 million in a venture to develop biofuels from algae in a research and development venture with Synthetic Genomics, a privately held company that is concentrating on gene-based research.
March said this effort, which could bolster the world’s transportation fuel supply and eventually reduce GHGs, needs long-term planning horizons to deal with climate change.
GHGs have been “created for 100 years and I believe it will take at least 100 years to arrest (GHGs) without significantly affecting our quality of life and to allow the developing world to still improve their quality of life.”
“Many of the cycles and planning processes governments and business and others use are frankly just too short,” he said.
March said new technology is vital in addressing environmental issues confronting the oil sands, such as GHGs, water use and land reclamation, noting that about 80 percent of Imperial’s research spending is assigned to developing new oil sands technologies.
He later told reporters that the oil sands have become the “whipping boy” for environmental groups such as Greenpeace.
March said that although the Canadian government’s environmental policy framework is focused on smokestacks and industries such as the auto sector, there is a real need for consumers to look beyond that effort and understand how their own actions play a role in climate change.
“This is where the cooperation of business, government, academia and the corporate sectors is going to be absolutely critical because if all we do is count on big (carbon dioxide) producers to effect the change, you just simply won’t get there.
“New technologies will be developed, but once you make CO2 it’s nearly impossible to unmake it,” he said.
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