Here is an interesting perspective from a European newcomer to the Oil Sands, Statoil a Norwegian oil company, which just acquired North American Oil Sands Corp. A Statoil executive said that last Thursday’s Greenhouse Gas emission targets were no surprise to them, and Vice President Peder Sortland further added: “When it comes to environmental issues we've seen this coming in Europe” and “To us, it was a surprise almost that it didn't come sooner”.
Statoil is planning on using Steam-Assisted Gravity Drainage (SAGD) technology to extract the bitumen from the ground, and it is considering creating an upgrader in Fort Saskatchewan. Statoil has used CO2 Sequestration technology at 3 existing operations and will likely use this technology for this oil sands operation.
Special thanks to Scott’s DiaTribes blog in bringing to light this perspective on this story.
I have never been a fan of too much foreign ownership of Canadian resources such as the Oil Sands, but I think we need this type of leadership to come into this industry wherever it may come from.
Showing posts with label Carbon Capture. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Carbon Capture. Show all posts
Sunday, April 29, 2007
Thursday, March 8, 2007
New Alberta CO2 Pipeline: A step in the right direction
I was pleased to learn that Prime Minister Harper has signed on with Premier Stelmach’s proposed CO2 pipeline. This pipeline is a step in the right direction in reducing the Oil Sands industry’s Greenhouse Gas emissions; however, the more significant portion of the costs will lie in the Capture and Compression of this initiative. In addition, Oil Wells receiving this CO2 will likely need to be retrofitted and modernized.
More importantly, we need to ensure that in spite of high growth of the Oil Sands, total Greenhouse Gas emissions are reduced from this industry. Although Carbon Capture & Storage will significantly contribute to this objective we also need to focus on improving energy efficiency of Oil Sands extraction and upgrading.
This comes at a time when both Federal and Provincial governments are reviewing incentive programs for Oil Sands development, namely the Oil Sands Royalty Regime and the Accelerated Capital Costs Allowance programs. Providing incentives to the Oil Sands to have it reduce its total Greenhouse Gas emissions will prove to be costly given the current rate of growth this industry is experiencing. I believe that the above programs can be reformed in order to help the industry reduce its Greenhouse Gas emissions. I have elaborated on how these programs could be reformed in my initial posting below.
More importantly, we need to ensure that in spite of high growth of the Oil Sands, total Greenhouse Gas emissions are reduced from this industry. Although Carbon Capture & Storage will significantly contribute to this objective we also need to focus on improving energy efficiency of Oil Sands extraction and upgrading.
This comes at a time when both Federal and Provincial governments are reviewing incentive programs for Oil Sands development, namely the Oil Sands Royalty Regime and the Accelerated Capital Costs Allowance programs. Providing incentives to the Oil Sands to have it reduce its total Greenhouse Gas emissions will prove to be costly given the current rate of growth this industry is experiencing. I believe that the above programs can be reformed in order to help the industry reduce its Greenhouse Gas emissions. I have elaborated on how these programs could be reformed in my initial posting below.
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