|
In-situ isn't making grade: Pembina |
|
Written by Carol Christian
|
|
Thursday, 25 March 2010 20:16 |
Today staff
Some in-situ projects are as harmful to the environment as mining, according to a new report card issued Wednesday by the Pembina Institute.
Drilling Deeper: The In Situ Oil Sands Report Card rates nine Canadian operating projects in Alberta's three oilsands regions. Five projects scored less than 50%, and none scored above 60%.
The average score of 44% demonstrates substantial room for improvement across the sector, the institute said.
"Such a wide variation in the environmental performance of in-situ projects suggests a failure to implement best practices available to them," Pembina's oilsands program director Simon Dyer said. "It also shows that the bar is set so low that companies are creating needless environmental impacts."
In-situ extraction techniques are used where oilsands lie too deep underground to mine. Given that about 80,000 square kilometres of Alberta — an area the size of Scotland — has been leased for in-situ development, the potential impact of these projects could be significant, the report said.
Oilsands projects were graded on 17 different environmental indicators in five categories: environmental management, land impacts, air pollution, water use and management of greenhouse gases. Companies were provided with opportunities to review the data and to comment on their performance.
Suncor Energy's Firebag project scored the highest at 60%. The lowest score — 25% — was given to Canadian Natural Resources' Primrose/Wolf Lake project.
Though Suncor hasn't had an opportunity to review the report card in detail, spokeswoman Sneh Seetal said the company appreciates the effort Pembina has made to improve its reporting methodology.
"We support the concept of industry best practices as a benchmarking improvement tool and we've worked with industry peers in developing and implementing best practices," she said. "This is a very good example of an NGO working collaboratively with industry to propose solutions."
The report said a project using the best attributes of all projects would only score 85% — indicating the sector as a whole can improve.
"There are some things here we can take away and make our industry better. Obviously it supports industry's belief technology is a key lever for improving our environmental performance," said Travis Davies, spokesman for the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers.
Dyer said the report card only looked at projects operating in 2007, as they were the only data publicly available when work started in 2009. That's why names like ConocoPhillips Surmont and Opti-Nexen Long Lake are missing from the list, he said.
cchristian@fortmcmurraytoday.com
|
Resources 