Our industry understands Canadians' concerns and is working with new techniques and technologies to reduce our environmental impact.
The Issue: The Impact on the Environment
The pace of investment and development in the oil sands has increased quickly over the past few years. As a result, more people than ever have taken an interest in the region and they are concerned about the environmental impacts of the projects currently operating, and the ones planned for the future.
80 per cent of oil sands are drilled from deep
underground at sites like this Petrobank facility.
We understand the concern. Oil sands development has an impact on the environment. Because it’s a big industry, it has a big impact – not unlike large-scale hydroelectricity or hard-rock mining projects. As an industry, we welcome the scrutiny. We feel it is essential that people understand what development means, because the issues involved are important to everyone.
The four most common environmental impacts from oil sands (sometimes called tar sands) development are greenhouse gas emissions, land use, water use and tailings ponds.
What We're Doing: New Techniques and Practices
Greenhouse gas emissions
The nature of the oil sands makes them more energy-intensive to produce – energy is needed to transport the earth, to break it down into smaller pieces and heat the water used in the separation process. Energy is also used in other processes such as producing the hydrogen needed to upgrade the heavy crude. All of these steps produce greenhouse gas emissions – a contributing factor to climate change.
We’re working on new technologies to lower these emissions, and capture and store carbon dioxide (C02).
Find out about our commitment to reducing emissions
Land use
Oil sands operations, especially open-pit mines, disturb a large area of land. The government requires companies to return the land to a sustainable landscape (reclamation) that is as good or better than it was originally. A plan to restore the land must be developed and approved by government as part of the project’s approval process.
Syncrude Canada Ltd.’s Gateway Hill area recently became the first oil sands lease to receive a final reclamation certificate from the government.
Find out more about our commitment to returning the land to a sustainable landscape
Water use
Water is used in open-pit mining for oil separation and at in situ operations to make steam. Both require a significant amount of water per barrel of oil produced. As a result, we need to ensure our water use is managed responsibly.
While we have much more work to do to improve our water use, we have had success in this area. Imperial Oil Resources’ Cold Lake operation has reduced its per-barrel water use from 3.5 barrels in 1985 to half a barrel today, by recycling more than 95 per cent of the water it uses. And some companies are using only non-drinkable water, such as salt water (brackish), in their operations.
Read more about our commitment to reducing water use
Tailings ponds
While only 20 per cent of the oil sands is developed by open-pit mining, those operations produce tailings ponds. These ponds contain tailings (a mixture of water, sand, clay and bitumen), are large in size and are regulated by the provincial government. Tailings ponds can be hazardous to local wildlife and are an unsightly part of the landscape.
Companies are using new techniques to reduce the size of tailings ponds and the amount of water used. For example, Shell Canada Limited’s Albian Sands project uses an innovative technique that recaptures more water before tailings are released, resulting in less water withdrawn from the river and smaller tailings ponds.
Safeguarding the Public
Our industry's top priority is the health and safety of the public and employees.
Read more about Health & Safety
The people featured in CAPP's ads are real oil sands industry employees. We find them in our operations, across a wide-range of professions.
See the ads
Join the conversation
It is important to have a balanced conversation about the oil sands and its impacts. You can also participate at www.canadasoilsands.ca.
The Canadian Oil Sands
Energy Security vs. Climate Change
Authored by The Council on Foreign Relations
The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) is an independent American nonpartisan think tank that seeks to better understand the foreign policy choices facing the United States and other countries. CFR has offices in New York and Washington.
“Canadian Oil Sands: Energy Security and Climate Change Concerns Can be Reconciled, Says New CFR Report”
Excerpt from the May 2009 CFR release:
“In the contentious debate about oil sands—a massive but emissions-intensive source of oil— some argue that the United States should discourage the development of oil sands because its operations generate more climate-damaging greenhouse gas emissions than conventional oil production. Others argue that the United States should actively encourage their development because it would strengthen U.S. energy security with a supply of oil from a friendly and stable neighbor.
This report contends that both arguments are exaggerated—but neither is without merit. On the climate side, the report argues that the development of Canadian oil sands are is not the “climate catastrophe” that some claim. While oil sands’ life cycle greenhouse gas emissions—those entailed in production, transport, refining, and ultimate use—are greater than those associated with conventional oil, Levi points out that the total emissions from oil sands production in Canada are equal to less than 0.1 percent of the global total—“a small piece of the [global] emissions picture.”
Source: Michael A. Levi, the David M. Rubenstein senior fellow for energy and the environment at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR).
(www.cfr.org)
Download the report: The Canadian Oil Sands - Energy Security vs. Climate Change
(pdf | www.cfr.org)
The Canadian oil and gas industry fully recognizes that it must continue to do its part in addressing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.
Read about CAPP on Climate
OIL SANDS EMISSIONS
Emissions from Oil Sands Comparable to Other Crude Oils
Two independent reports demonstrate how greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from oil sands derived crude oils are similar to conventional oil production in some areas.
FACT
GHGs
29.5 megatonnes of greenhouse gases are emitted from the oil sands each year.
This represents
- 12 per cent of Alberta’s total greenhouse emissions
- five percent of Canada’s emissions
- 0.1 per cent of the world’s total greenhouse gas emissions
DID YOU KNOW?
Land Use
Deep oil sands are extracted using drilling techniques and occupy a land area equivalent to the size of the state of Florida.
Shallow oil sands are mined in open pits and occupy a land area equivalent to the size of the city of Edmonton, Alberta.
Water Use
Approximately 1 per cent of the flow of the Athabasca River is used in production of the oil sands.
Close to 90 per cent of water used in oil sands production is recycled.
Oil Sands Publications
CAPP has produced this overview of Canada's oil sands region, including the nature and size of the resource, the global energy mix outlook and a description of mining and insitu operations.
CAPP STEWARDSHIP REPORT
Canadians are talking about responsible resource development.
We're listening and taking action.
CAPP Commentary
National Geographic: An Incomplete Perspective
Mar 10, 2009
CAPP thinks it is important that a more complete perspective be seen and understood. What readers do not see is that all oil sands developments are ultimately reclaimed and returned to a natural state.
Read CAPP's Comments on the National Geographic article