alberta the strongest economy in Canada a province with the most exciting
opportunities in the world today
the reason is its vast energy resources for more than 50 years the energy
industry has been commercially developing one of the largest petroleum
reserves on the planet the Alberta oil sands a proven reserves of oil so large
it is second only to saudi arabia's production rates from the oil sands
already exceed 1 million barrels a day by 2018 new and expanded projects are
forecast to increase production to $OPERAND over 3 million barrels a day
athabasca called Lake peace river these deposits represent approximately 170
billion barrels of established reserves
with ongoing technology advances the recoverable reserves will become even
greater
Alberta has a vision a vision for a dynamic future opportunity is here and
now
albert is abundant energy resources will be developed into refined petroleum
products and chemicals right here in the province Alberta's environment will be
safeguarded for future generations and the development of advanced technologies
and best practices will be encouraged
albertus communities will be involved in creating a sustainable future
this is the story of Alberta's vision and the world of opportunity it is
creating
what appears to be a medical CT scanner actually is but this is no hospital the
Alberta Research Council is one of the provinces leading petroleum research
facilities this sophisticated analytical tool is used to gaze deep inside or oil
sands experiments
yeah
the knowledge gained from applying expertise to advanced studies like this
is leading to more economical and more environmentally friendly oil sands
recovery techniques
less than a hundred years ago this resource was considered inaccessible and
unusable but times have changed
Alberta's oil sands now have an important role to play in the World
hydrocarbon future the oil found in the oil sands is in the form of bitumen but
getting it out of the ground and turning it into a usable form of energy isn't
easy
depending on the location
it may lie below swamps mixed amongst and/or encased inside rock formations
despite challenging terrain and reservoir conditions Alberta has created
the solutions many of the technologies that have been developed to extract the
resource in Alberta can be applied to reservoirs around the world for bitumen
located less than 75 meters from the surface
mining has proven to be the most effective method of recovery some of the
largest moving vehicles on the planet are found at these northern Alberta oil
sands mining sites 400 tons per load 24 hours a day 365 days a year even at this
astonishing rate they're barely scratching the surface only twenty
percent of the established reserves in the oil sands can be recovered through
surface mining processes producing the larger much deeper reserves has required
ingenuity and many years of focused research and development to meet the
world's increasing demand for heavy oil alberta utilizes a variety of insitute
recovery technologies Institute meaning in place refers to processes for
recovering the fishermen deep underground in most cases it must be
heated to a liquid state and then pumped to the surface
in the northern part of the province is a showpiece of alberta born insitute
technology sag d steam assisted gravity drainage is the thermal technology that
literally unlocked in situational sands development effective in a broad range
of geological situations sagte has been the predominant Institute technology
used in the province sagte utilizes two parallel horizontal wells place near the
bottom of a reservoir the upper well inject steam to heat the bitumen
allowing it to flow to the bottom well where is pumped to the surface and sent
for processing this Albert operation is the first to integrate sag d with an
on-site upgrader a facility that converts the bitumen to its next stage
of quality refinement
what makes this operation truly unique is its application of an integrated
upgrading process that includes gasification gasification separates the
heaviest component of the bitumen and converts it into a clean synthesis gas
this gas is used to generate steam for the extraction process it also provides
hydrogen for upgrading the bitumen to a premium quality synthetic crude oil
by integrating the extraction upgrading gasification and infrastructure
facilities less energy is consumed while producing higher value products and
conserving resources
near the eastern border of alberta and Institute technique has been custom-made
to deal with the region's heavy oil reserves chops or cold heavy oil
production with sand closely resembles a conventional oil well this process also
recover sand which makes the oil flow much more easily powerful pumps pull
material through a vertically drilled well the process reaches out great
distances below the surface to access the reservoir chops is a simple
effective technique with a reduced environmental footprint it makes this an
attractive solution for similar heavy oil reservoirs around the world
several of Alberta's Institute technologies rely on water or steam
generation most operations are recycling up to ninety percent of their water
intake the advancement of water recycling technologies is a key
component of Alberta's vision for the environment
this institute I'll sands operation in Alberta's cold lake region is using a
process called CSS cyclic steam stimulation CSS injects team down the
well at high pressure and temperature after a soap phase the well begins to
produce a mixture of bitumen water and gases that are piped to a central plant
for processing
yeah
this simulation represents one of alberta's latest pilot recovery
techniques
it's a process called ty
short for toe to heel air injection the process preheats the bitumen with steam
and then inject air into the vertical well to cause a combustion reaction the
high temperature causes the bitumen to flow from the toe of the horizontal
producing well to its he'll it's extremely efficient using much less
water and natural gas and results in an oil ready for the pipeline
the success of these oil sands recovery techniques has created employment for
thousands and opened up huge opportunities in many supporting trades
and industries but to be clear this is more than just an opportunity for
Alberta companies from around the world are providing goods and services for oil
sands development for coming here to learn from the expertise that has been
developed
beyond the world of oil sands recovery even more exciting opportunities are
waiting
Alberta has worked with industry to prove the processing heavy oil into
higher value product right here in the province is both technically and
economically feasible to accomplish this a large portion of the resource
extracted from the oil sands regions is moved south on an expanding network of
underground pipelines the destination is a region of concentrated supporting
industries near edmonton the provinces capital city it's an area primed for
meeting the demands of upgrading and refining the heavy oil and oil sands
bitumen into much higher value finished products
this is Alberta's industrial heartland here prosperity and efficiency are
encouraged through industrial integration a sharing of resources and
infrastructure designed to produce refined fuels and chemicals for global
markets integration allows for one company's waste to become another's
feedstock and we're technologies and best practices are encouraged to enhance
operational efficiencies this significantly reduces the overall
environmental footprint and improves of projects return-on-investment once
extracted the heavy oil and bitumen is processed at an upgrader like this one
the upgraders will transform this heavy product into a synthetic crude oil
similar to light conventional oil Alberta has five bitumen upgraders
processing over 1 million barrels per day
additional upgrading investments are being announced that could lead to
capacity doubling over the next 10 to 15 years the equipment and service demands
to sustain these facilities over there 30 to 50 year lifespan could represent
upwards of 100 billion dollars in business opportunities local and
international companies of all types are invited to participate in this
tremendous growth
from the upgraders the synthetic crude oil makes its way to the refineries here
a variety of processing techniques transform it into a series of consumer
petroleum products like diesel gasoline
aviation fuel kerosene and fuel oil but the products derived from the oil sands
are not always so obvious this petrochemical plant creates plastic
beads from natural gas-based ethane the beads are sold to manufacturers that
will convert them into a wide range of everyday plastic products
alberta's petrochemical industry is looking at the rich natural gas liquids
found in the upgrader off gases as a new feedstock this opportunity meets the
objectives of government to maximize the value of our oil sands resource by
moving up the value chain to produce products for global markets
the environment is a high priority in Alberta a variety of measures ensure it
is protected for future generations
Edmonton's wastewater treatment plant is using state-of-the-art techniques to
turn its treated wastewater into a high industrial grade each day as much as 15
million leaders can be piped for use at a nearby refining
facilities like this will continue to help reduce industry demands on local
fresh water supplies alberta also recognizes the importance of maintaining
healthy air quality ambient air quality is monitored at several locations in the
Athabasca deposit region assaulted by hydrocarbon supply the area consistently
receives top air quality ratings
ammonia's by while the oil sands account for less than one-tenth of one percent
of global greenhouse gas emissions Alberta is leading in action on climate
change the province was the first jurisdiction in North America to enact
climate change legislation and set a price on carbon carbon capture and
storage is a critical element of Alberta's climate change plan and we'll
play a role in managing oil sands related ghg emissions and the government
has committed two billion dollars towards the development of a number of
large scale CCS demonstration projects
from Alberta it's on to the world pipelines highways and railways
transport the oil sands products to global markets it's estimated that every
dollar invested in the oil sands generates over eight dollars in direct
or indirect economic activity this has a positive impact and generates tremendous
opportunity across all sectors of the economy with production rates expected
to expand over the next few years the province will continue to experience
strong economic growth Alberta is ready and is managing this growth responsibly
by working closely with industries and communities strategies are being
developed to provide a sufficient labor force to care for the environment and to
create the necessary infrastructure required to take full advantage of the
oil sands potential the world is looking for a safe secure and stable supply of
energy resources Alberta is poised to fill that need responsibly the
opportunities here are immense
the time is now to participate in Alberta's astonishing growth
yeah
the first 25 years of oil sands development has been about trying to
produce a resource and make it competitive in world markets the next 25
years is going to be about trying to make that resource a lot more
sustainable in its development there is a growing environmental movement not
only within alberta but internationally that are interested specifically in all
sounds development and actually welcome that because I myself feel quite
affiliated with them i do work for the Department and very passionate about
protecting our land and water is very room for improvement
do we need critiques by people throughout canada and the world
yes of course that's what keeps us on our toes what's its what keeps us
constantly re-evaluating and looking for better ways of doing our business I
think it's because our burdens are so ready to to take the stage you know and
say here's our plan throw rocks at us if you will it's only gonna make this
better is is what makes us better fifty percent of RL in Canada is produced from
oil sands and that's going to grow into in the future we thinking about 10 years
will be about 75% of Canada's oil production and a large part of our
exports will be oil sands derived crude humor lovely we know that we're going to
see say three million barrels of oil sands production so what does that look
like or the carrying capacity of the ecosystem and setting the thresholds to
say okay we can only manage this much air pollution in this region and capping
the air pollution so that we maintain good air quality capping the amount of
freshwater that can be used so that we have sustained and healthy ecosystem
river system for now and in the future i fly over the oil sands all the time do a
lot of water quality sampling up their part of the reason it's so surprising so
shocking is because you've it's sort of you come over this green expanse with
very little
disturbance in it and there it is and it looks massive and it looks it looks it
looks out of place that said the total footprint for mines themselves which
looks so drastic
it's actually small one percent of Alberta's forest area as far as reserves
are concerned which is the part of the resource that you can produce their
second only to Saudi Arabia we're talking about the oil sands the total
the entire oil sands resource being the size of Florida but in fact only a very
small proportion of that oil send is being dug dug up for surface mining
eighty percent of the resource actually is deeply buried that part of the
resource can be produced using very different methods than having to surface
mine it seemed assisted gravity drainage is a process by which steam is injected
into the reservoir to melt the bitumen to the point where it can be pumped to
the surface
the main advantage of institute production is that the wells are drilled
from a single pad and it's possible from the surface to drill wells that can
extend several kilometers in the underground to develop that resource
environmental impacts of steam assisted gravity drainage of course are much
easier to meet to mitigate to manage because this the level of disturbance is
much smaller you're not scraping off all the surface soils you never fully
disrupting the soil processes that you have to re-establish a mine site from
basically from scratch virtually no more water will be used out of the Athabasca
River because most of the saggy water will be treated and reused now either
are the impacts real from saggy and I don't want to minimize the the are the
impacts that can occur from fast networks of pipelines there is an impact
from that particularly to wildlife you have to manage those what limitations
you need to put on the amount of say linear disturbance
and roads so that you can have a minimized impact on those sensitive
species such as caribou reclamation is what makes oil sands mining and
development possible we couldn't just extract oil sands and then leave a
barren landscape afterwards it wouldn't be acceptable to Albertans reclamation
simply is the returning of that land to an equivalent land capability
it's not just about putting the soil back about putting the soil back
contouring the land it's about revegetation it's about perhaps putting
in wetlands of wetlands were there before there's always active reclamation
going on as the mind develops and as it moves forward reclamation is indeed
occurring over 65 square kilometers or under Regulation know this takes time
this takes this is a 30 to 40 year game plan and that's why we have just issued
our first reclamation certificate on a hundred and four hectare site you want
to ensure that the that the piece of reclaimed landscape that you're
certifying is indeed a self-sustaining for stood for that for studio system
that will not require any ongoing maintenance and that takes time
well a tailings pond is part of the mining process when you heat up the
pitchman you produce a slurry that's contained that contains water a little
bit of bitumen and a lot of sound because richmond is contained in sand
and it's put into a tailings pond which is really a down like structure what we
have around the tailings ponds is a groundwater monitoring system and then a
capture system so that if anything leaks it actually gets caught in this capture
system is rejected back into the tailings ponds itself you want an
immediate detection just like any city landfill you put your monitoring system
right next to that landfill or right next to the pond and you'll want to
detect that leachate right away so that you can remediate quickly
what does end up happening over time is that as the cut as the tailings
consolidate they become an almost impermeable layer of very fine clay so
the secret rates decline over time we have on our first tailing ponds that
will be reclaimed by 2010 won't be fully treat or anything like that but there
will be topsoil and a layer of vegetation that will be placed on top of
it we do extensive water quality monitoring of the Athabasca River we
take thousands and thousands of water samples we've been monitoring since the
early 1960s and so far we've not been able to find any impact from the
tailings ponds itself perceptually when you look at the short historical record
flows in the Athabasca are very low currently or have been very low now is
that a concern Alberta Environment along with Department of Fisheries and Oceans
put into place a water management framework for the Athabasca River which
alleviates that concern it does so by setting strict limits on how much water
can be taken from the Athabasca River on a weekly basis the allocations are
approximately three percent of the annual flow of the Athabasca River now
not all that three percent is actually taken its what allocated but the
companies that are withdrawing are not actually withdrawing their full volumes
most areas of the world do this when they're in trouble when they have no
more water to give their water quality is degraded to the point that their
ecosystems are being degraded and Alberta has chosen to say we want to
keep our water clean and abundant and therefore we come up with these
management frameworks in a very proactive matter
this was predicated on what is really unique in the international community
for the amount of money and time spent on collecting data millions of dollars
spent on it we brought in scientists from around the world so really we
created a water management framework that a state-of-the-art companies have
moved a long way to reduce their fresh water use and I'm talking about from you
know eighty percent freshwater used to now three to four five percent in steam
assisted gravity drainage operations in Alberta we summarize our quality through
what we call the air quality index we measure 5 air quality pollutants and
then we wrap that up into a number and we have a standard that we like to see
so over the last 10 or 15 years air quality has been rated good ninety
percent of the time the air quality actually hasn't gotten worse informant
very because of the stringent standards that we have in place because of the
heavy industrial development in that particular region there is air quality
monitoring going on 24 hours a day seven days a week and it's actually being very
vital to show us what is happening with specific air quality contaminants
overall the air quality is very good that is backed by the monitoring that
has occurred for decades when you put into context the oil sands contribution
i think there's a perception out there that it is for example the largest
industrial footprint on the planet
what we're talking about right now is is an industrial activity that's about
one-tenth the one percent of global emissions greenhouse gas emissions it is
a global issue co2 doesn't respect any jurisdictions are boundaries but we all
have to make a difference we all can make it
difference in reducing those emissions so Albert is focused on areas where we
can make the most difference there are technologies that we're developing and
trying to implement that can look at capturing co2 from those large industry
. sources ultimately purified those suits co2 emissions and then those those
emissions would then be transported and ultimately injected into geologic
formations where they can be stored for extremely long periods of time
geological time essentially we're talking about storing co2 very deep
about 1,000 meters below the surface the most critical time to monitor is
actually during the injection phase that's when most of the monitoring
technologies will be deployed but will have longer-term monitoring as well
Alberta has stepped up by committing two billion dollars to 325 commercial sized
carbon capture and storage projects are experts in Alberta are recognized as
international experts and they're in high demand around the world we've been
working not just at the operator research council but canadian
universities alberta universities working on projects in Australia in
china in the United States I don't know if anywhere else in the world where
these kinds of ideas could be managed as well as it's it's here especially
because we have the resource but also the people resources have been developed
here I think Albertans themselves are very much solutions-oriented and they
see possibilities that inherently drives innovation and it really drives
solutions all of my work has been done in northern Alberta on alberta lakes and
rivers so I was a beneficiary have seen it firsthand it's touched me it's it's
for my my professional career is the attitude that Albertans have towards the
environment and the resources they are willing to put towards it
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