New data released in 2023 shows the progress Canada’s oil and gas industry is making to reduce its environmental footprint.  

From emissions to water use and reclamation, here are some key performance statistics.  

1. Methane emissions reduction target achieved three years ahead of schedule 

Photo courtesy Tourmaline

The Alberta Energy Regulator (AER) released data in November showing that oil and gas producers in the province achieved the target of reducing methane emissions by 45 per cent compared to 2014.  

The milestone was achieved in 2022, three years ahead of the 2025 government deadline.  

Reducing methane emissions comes primarily from reducing small leaks from valves, pump seals, and other equipment, as well as reducing flaring and venting.   

2. Oil sands emissions stay flat despite production growth  

Oil sands steam generators. Photo courtesy Cenovus Energy

An updated study by S&P Global in August found oil sands emissions did not increase in 2022 even though production grew. 

It’s a significant first that indicates oil sands emissions may start decreasing sooner than previously expected, said Kevin Birn, S&P Global’s vice-president of Canadian oil markets.  

Total oil sands emissions were 81 megatonnes in 2022, nearly flat with 2021 despite a production increase of about 50,000 barrels per day.  

In 2022, S&P Global predicted peak oil sands emissions around 2025. The new findings indicate it could happen faster.  

3. Producers spend millions more than required on oil and gas cleanup 

Photo courtesy Alberta Energy Regulator

Oil and gas producers in Alberta spent significantly more than required in 2022 cleaning up inactive wells, facilities and pipelines, the AER reported in October.  

The regulator’s industry-wide minimum “closure” spend for 2022 was set at $422 million. But the final tally showed producers spent $685 million, or about 60 per cent more than the regulator required.  

Industry abandoned 10,334 inactive wells, pipelines and facilities in 2022 – nearly double the amount abandoned in 2019 and 2020, the AER reported.   

Reclamation activity also accelerated, with the AER issuing 461 reclamation certificates, an increase of one third compared to 2021.  

The regulator reports that 17 per cent of licensed wells in Alberta are now considered inactive, down from 21 per cent in 2019. And about 30 per cent of licensed wells are now considered reclaimed, up from 27 per cent in 2019.   

4. Oil sands reclaimed land growing  

Wetland in reclaimed area in the Athabasca oil sands region. Photo by Greg Halinda for the Canadian Energy Centre

Data released by Canada’s Oil Sands Innovation Alliance highlights the growing spread of the industry’s reclaimed land. 

As of 2021, oil sands operators had permanently reclaimed 10,344 hectares, the equivalent area of more than 20,000 NFL football fields – a 16 per cent increase from 2019. 

Of this, 1,296 hectares (about 2,500 NFL football fields) is permanently reclaimed to wetlands and aquatics.  

5. Fresh water use per barrel declining 

Photo courtesy Cenovus Energy

New data on water use in Alberta’s oil and gas industry released in December shows producers continue to reduce the use of fresh water from lakes, rivers and shallow groundwater

The oil and gas industry used less than one per cent of Alberta’s available fresh water in 2022, the AER reported.  

Thanks primarily to increased water recycling, fresh water use per barrel in Alberta oil and gas has decreased by 22 per cent since 2013.  

Overall, 82 per cent of water used in Alberta oil and gas in 2022 was recycled; 80 per cent in oil sands mining, and 90 per cent in drilled or “in situ” oil sands production.  

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Led by producers in the oil sands, businesses in Canada’s oil and gas industry invested nearly $700 million in 2021 on research and development – the first increase since 2012, according to the latest data from Statistics Canada.  

Oil sands producers spent $426 million on R&D in 2021, an increase of $117 million compared to the previous year, StatsCan said. Canada’s oil and gas sector overall spent $698 million on R&D, the highest level since 2016.  

“The StatsCan data reinforces what we already knew about Canada’s oil sands producers: they are leaders in environmental research and technological innovation to lower industry’s environmental footprint,” says Wes Jickling, vice-president with the Pathways Alliance, a partnership of companies representing 95 per cent of oil sands production.    

“These investment statistics reflect the extent of this industry’s commitment to sustainable development and clean tech innovation.” 

R&D investments by oil sands producers have led to environmental improvements including reduced emissions and water use per barrel, as well as better land reclamation and restoration, Jickling said.   

In 2012, members of Canada’s Oil Sands Innovation Alliance (COSIA), now part of Pathways, set targets to reduce fresh water use intensity by 50 per cent by 2022 for in situ or drilled oil sands projects, and by 30 per cent by 2022 for mining projects.  

As of 2021 they had surpassed both targets. In situ producers on average used 0.17 barrels of fresh water to produce one barrel of bitumen, a 52 per cent reduction since 2012. And mining producers on average used 1.2 barrels of fresh water to produce a barrel of bitumen, a 45 per cent reduction from 2012.  

Oil sands emissions per barrel have been on a steady decline for more than a decade and are now 23 per cent lower than in 2009, according to S&P Global Commodity Insights.  

Despite rising production, total emissions from the oil sands did not grow in 2022, S&P Global Reports. Analysts now expect peak oil sands emissions before 2025.  

To accelerate emissions reduction, the Pathways Alliance is advancing one of the world’s largest carbon capture and storage projects. Their target is to reduce total emissions from operations by 22 million tonnes by 2030, on the way to net zero emissions from operations by 2050.   

“We expect to see continued investments in oil sands clean tech innovation as Pathways Alliance members work together to achieve net zero emissions from operations and produce the world’s most responsible barrel of oil,” Jickling said.  

Total Canadian in-house spending on energy-related R&D reached $2.4 billion in 2021, the highest level since 2014, StatsCan reported.   

The strongest growth occurred in hydrogen and fuel cells, which rose $163 million to $250 million, an increase of 187 per cent. The rise was mainly due to increased spending within the manufacturing sector. 

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Fresh water use intensity across the oil and gas sector has decreased by 14 per cent since 2017, says a new report by the Alberta Energy Regulator (AER).

Of the water used for energy development in Alberta, 82 per cent is recycled.

Driving the numbers is oil sands mining, which uses over 82 per cent of the industry’s fresh water. In 2021, mining companies used less fresh water, and produced more fresh water, than in the previous five years.

Oil sands mining in northeastern Alberta uses heavy equipment to remove oil sands from near-surface deposits and transports the material to facilities that separate bitumen from sand – which requires water.

The lower Athabasca River is the primary source of non-recycled water for oil sands mining, says the AER. Despite the industry’s dependence on the waterway, companies withdraw much less than the weekly limits set by Alberta Environment and Parks.

“They’ve got many new treatment methods that use less river water and more recycled water,” says John Brogly, director of water and tailings with Canada’s Oil Sands Innovation Alliance. “Each operator uses a slightly different process.”

In situ oil sands projects – which use drilled oil wells instead of mining – use water in the form of steam and require a decreasing amount of water per barrel of oil after the first few years of their life cycle, says the AER. As the wells mature, they require less water per barrel of oil as the amount of water produced at surface (most of which is recycled) is about the same as the amount of steam injected.

The projects use either steam assisted gravity drainage (SAGD) or cyclic steam stimulation (CSS) technology to recover oil by injecting steam into geological formations to heat bitumen and reduce its viscosity so it can flow to surface.

The five-year average fresh water use intensity for in situ projects was 0.19 barrels of non-saline water per barrel of oil, which is a 25 per cent decrease from 2017, says the AER. The reduction is due to high rates of produced water recycling and alternative water source use.

“The in situ sector uses almost exclusively water from subsurface aquifers,” says Brogly.

Only 13 per cent of fresh water allocated to all industries in Alberta was designated for oil and gas extraction, and the industry used only 19 per cent of its allocation, says the AER.

“It’s our job to ensure that Alberta’s energy industry uses water resources responsibly and identify where there is room for improvement,” says the AER.

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Mohamed Gamal El-Din gets a kick out of the fact that his three sons, aged 9, 13 and 14, ask him some unusual questions.

As a civil and environmental engineer and Industrial Research Chair at the University of Alberta, he’s glad they aren’t just inquiring about stereotypical adolescent topics, like cartoons and video games.

“They ask me if I’ve solved the problem of naphthenic acids, and that’s something only scientists would know about,” he says. “I tell them I’m still working on it.”

Naphthenic acids are one of the main contaminants in water that has been used in the oil sands process. And Gamal El-Din is indeed still working on it.

Along with fellow U of A researcher Lei Zhang and Yanyan Zhang in the department of civil engineering at New Mexico State University, Gamal El-Din recently authored a paper detailing a new approach for cleaning and decontaminating oil sands process water.

Published in the August issue of Science of the Total Environment, the paper suggests that a method previously used to treat pharmaceutical waste water could also remove naphthenic acids from oil sands process water. The system, which infuses water with oxygen atoms in a technique known as ozonation, could dramatically speed up the time it takes to clean up contaminated water, which would enable reclamation to occur more quickly.

The amount of water used to extract one barrel of bitumen varies. According to NRCan, three to four barrels of water are used during surface mining; in situ – or drilling – processes use an average of 0.4 barrels. NRCan notes that most water used in oil sands development is recycled back into the process – 80 percent for established mining operations and approximately 94 percent for in situ recovery.

In mining, the process-affected water, which contains several organic compounds and heavy metals, is then typically stored in engineered dam and dyke facilities called tailings ponds, where it can take decades to naturally regenerate. The Alberta government estimates that almost one trillion litres of oil sands process water was stored in tailings ponds in 2013.

Multiple technologies and processes are under development to remediate oil sands process water and to reduce the industry’s tailings footprint.

Gamal El-Din and his colleagues believe they can use the ozonation technique to cut the cleaning process down to a matter of minutes, from decades.

He is planning to field test a similar technique this spring in a constructed project that will simulate a wetland.

“It’s not going to be just a big hole in the ground,” he says. “We’re going to engineer it in a way that adds material to it … and make use of these systems in a way where we don’t have to use a lot of energy” to cleanse the water.

Gamal El-Din’s work is being supported by a number of government agencies including the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada and Alberta Environment and Parks. A number of major oil sands operators, including Suncor, Syncrude, Canadian Natural Resources, Imperial Oil and Teck have also helped with the funding. Gamal El-Din’s work is also supported by Canada’s Oil Sands Innovation Alliance (COSIA).

Operators are under increasing pressure to clean up the water used in oil sands production, which is why they are investing in multiple lines of research and technology.

Syncrude, for example, in 2019 began a large closed-circuit pilot that uses petroleum coke, a byproduct of the bitumen upgrading process, to treat process water. The technology removes solids such as clay as well as hydrocarbons and dissolved organic compounds, including naphthenic acids.

Comprehensive testing of the process is planned for this year, which will help inform provincial and federal regulators as they work to establish regulations for safe return of treated oil sands process water into the Athabasca River. There is zero release currently allowed.

Syncrude’s work using petroleum coke as a filter has produced water so clean and clear it supports fish species like rainbow trout.

COSIA believes that Syncrude’s research findings have the potential for the entire industry when it comes to safely returning treated water to the environment.

Warren Zubot, senior engineering associate at Syncrude – who “discovered” the technology in 2005, has worked with Gamal El-Din previously and says his ozonation research is nearly ready for prime time. Combined with other efforts like the coke cleansing technique, he believes the oil sands industry is getting closer to reaching some breakthroughs in water treatment.

“A lot of his activity has significant potential to move to the field pilot stage, which would then be a step toward potential commercialization,” Zubot says. “In all likelihood, there won’t be one silver bullet technology for treating water for a safe return. It will be an array of technologies that will depend on a site operator’s specifics.”

For his part, Gamal El-Din is hoping for a breakthrough that will satisfy his children and their relatively advanced scientific curiosity.

“At the end of the day, I’m an engineer, and engineers, we aim to solve problems,” he says. “I like to see my research impacting society. I hope my work will be appreciated some day.”