Ambitious carbon dioxide strategy
In its natural state in the oil sands, bitumen is essentially solid. Mobilising it, bringing it to the surface and transforming it into usable petroleum products such as petrol and diesel requires energy, labour, other natural resources and time.
The energy source is steam, and producing steam results in emissions of carbon dioxide. We use natural gas to produce steam. The method results in greater carbon dioxide emissions than the production of conventional oil.
In the short term, our ambition is to reduce the amount of steam required to heat the oil sand. One concrete example of this is a planned pilot project in which solvent will be injected along with the steam.
Laboratory experiments show that this helps to reduce the viscosity of the bitumen, thus reducing the amount of steam required.
This could reduce the emissions of carbon dioxide from production by as much as 40%.
In the long run, the company wishes to participate in a carbon dioxide capture and storage project in cooperation with other industry players and the Alberta authorities.
We have joined a group of the largest carbon dioxide emitters in Alberta (the ICON group), who are cooperating to assess the feasibility of an integrated network for carbon capture and storage in Alberta.
The first phase of our heavy oil upgrader will be designed "capture ready". This is in line with the ambitions of the government of Alberta, which has recently published a climate change strategy that includes a plan to capture 139 million tonnes of carbon dioxide a year by 2050.
