Page 5 - NorthAmOil Week 29
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NorthAmOil COMMENTARY NorthAmOil
was 0.065 tonnes of CO2 equivalent per boe. Others have backed up CNRL’s claims of the progress is it making. “CNRL’s oil sands mining/ upgrading operations have net emissions inten- sity that is nearly on par with that of the average globalcrudeoil,”arecentreportbyBMOCapital
Markets said.
One of CNRL’s methods for reducing emis-
sions is through carbon capture and storage (CCS). e company has three CCS projects, and captures up to 2.7 million tonnes per year (tpy) of GHGs.
Like oil sands projects, CCS requires a con- siderable up-front investment, which makes some players hesitant to embrace it. But as pres- sure grows on the oil industry to act with more urgency on the issue of climate change, more CCS projects are likely to be developed.
Industry efforts
CNRL is not the only one taking steps to bring down oil sands emissions. Suncor also released a sustainability report on July 18, which showed that its GHG intensity was 0.062 tonnes of CO2 equivalent per boe in 2018. is was roughly 10% lower than its intensity of 0.069 tonnes of CO2 equivalent per boe in 2014. Suncor said that the start-up of its Fort Hills oil sands mine in January 2018 had helped it to cut its GHG intensity from 0.063 tonnes of CO2 equivalent per boe in 2017. e company has set a goal of reducing the GHG intensity of its operations by 30% compared to 2014 by 2030.
Meanwhile, Cenovus has said that it has reduced its GHG intensity by one third over the last 10 years. And Imperial said in April that it had reduced its GHG intensity at its operated
oil sands projects by 20% between 2013 and 2017. Imperial is planning to reduce the GHG intensity of these oil sands facilities by a further 10% over the next ve years, compared to levels recorded in 2016.
However, progress is anticipated to be slow. In the same report where it commented on CNRL’s e orts, BMO has estimated how quickly com- panies will be able to bring about further reduc- tions in emissions. “In our base case, we assume modest improvement in total oil sands emissions intensity of roughly 1.5% per year through 2030 compared to average improvements of 4.5% since 2013,” the report said.
e Pembina Institute, a Calgary-based envi- ronmental think-tank, expects total emissions to continue rising as more oil sands projects are built and existing facilities are expanded, despite a reduction in emission intensity.
According to the institute, oil sands emissions were about 77mn tonnes in 2018, and this could grow to 131mn tonnes if all of the proposed pro- jects that have received regulatory approval are ultimately built.
“We see a lot of companies showing good progress on reducing emission intensity per barrel, but I think it’s critical to also make sure to reduce absolute emissions of the oil sands sector, especially so they are aligned with our climate targets as a country,” a Pembina Institute policy analyst, Ben Israel, told CBC News.
Nonetheless, CNRL’s goal will be welcomed as a step in the right direction by those who want oil and gas producers to do more to prioritise environmental goals. But the move is unlikely to improve the oil sands’ overall attractiveness to investors, at least not dramatically.
The Pembina Institute, a Calgary-based environmental think-tank, expects total emissions to continue rising.
Suncor said that the start-up of its Fort Hills oil sands mine had helped it to cut
its GHG intensity from 0.063 tonnes of CO2 equivalent per boe in 2017 to 0.062 tonnes of CO2 equivalent per boe in 2018.
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