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Imperial Oil official says Gulf spill won’t help oil sands reputation
News Articles | CANWEST NEWS SERVICE | Mike De Souza | June 08, 2010
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OTTAWA — The unfolding ecological disaster off the Gulf of Mexico could damage the reputation of the entire oil industry model, without necessarily benefiting Alberta’s oilsands sector, says Imperial Oil Ltd’s president.
Speaking to a lunchtime business crowd in Ottawa Tuesday, Bruce March, the chairman, president and chief executive officer of Imperial Oil, said he could see “nothing good” coming out of the British Petroleum offshore drilling accident for the oilsands industry.
“There’s been some media reporting that it could point a focus on more security in the oilsands,” March said in response to a question from a U.S. embassy official. “I’m not so sure that’s a big gain at all. I think there will undoubtedly be some questioning about how sustainable oil is in terms of the energy platform moving forward in the future and it will have major concerns for continuing ongoing deepwater development, both in the United States and Canada and I would say all across the world.”
March compared the disaster to the 1989 Exxon Valdez shipping accident off the coast of Alaska, which resulted in millions of litres of oil spilling into the water and prompted major regulatory reforms. Exxon Mobil Corp., the world’s largest publicly traded international oil and gas company, owns about 70 per cent of Imperial Oil.
“I wouldn’t be a bit surprised, 20 years from now, that you see this (Gulf of Mexico) event also kind of spur new regulations and new ways that the industry operates,” March told reporters after his speech.
But March said stakeholders in industry and government would be carefully studying the ongoing investigation into the accident to develop policies and a path forward. He explained that some options being debated, such as requiring the drilling of relief wells at the same time as the drilling of a private well could add substantial costs to operations. But he said there are a long list of factors that would determine whether it would be economical or not.
Meantime, March acknowledged in his speech that the world is shifting away from oil toward renewable forms of energy. But he said that Canada’s oil reserves offered the only safe and most environmentally friendly source of energy to meet world demands over the next three decades.
“As these alternative energy sources are developed, they will gradually become more affordable,” March said in a prepared speech. “But the transition to a more renewable energy base will likely take 30 or more years to develop. In the interim, hydrocarbon fuels are the only way to meet the demand I have described today in a manner that is reliable and affordable.”
March said that the oilsands sector, a popular target of environmentalists and climate scientists, is an essential part of Canada’s economic well-being, as well as a source of billions of dollars in tax revenues for governments.
Overall greenhouse gas emissions from the sector have more than tripled since 1990. Scientists believe that global emissions must peak over the next few years and then be dramatically reduced to avoid irreversible damage to the earth’s ecosystems as well as significant impacts to the world’s economy.
March did not mention climate change or global warming in his speech, but later explained his company is taking action because of the risks of rising greenhouse gas emissions.
“We’re not experts in climactic science,” he told reporters. “We’re not good, and I don’t know that anybody is good, at quantifying these risks … but we see enough to know that we should be participating at some of the actions around the world that are taken.”
March also said that his company was working on new technologies to reduce energy and water consumption in its operations and reduce its overall environmental footprint.
“Our goal on land use is simple,” he said. “After development is completed, we want no evidence that we were ever there.”
He added that Imperial Oil would continue to improve “responsible development” of the oilsands in order to meet its expectations as well as those of stakeholders. For example, a new Kearl oilsands project, announced last year, would include cogeneration technology to produce electricity and steam at the same time, while reducing energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions.
“Canadians should not have to choose between energy, security, economic well-being or a clean environment,” he said. “It’s not an either-or proposition. A healthy environment and a strong economy are very important, and all of us should expect and be satisfied with nothing less.”
Tagged with: oil sands, gulf oil spill, imperial oil, bruce march
