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Northern Alberta contains a unique hydrocarbon resource known as the oil sands. From it's humble origins as a curiosity to fur trade explorers seeing bitumen freely flowing from the banks of the Athabasca River, to today where the oil sands supply the equivalent of approximately 50 percent of Canada's energy needs, this resource increasingly captures the attention of society, industry and stakeholders alike.
The interest drawn by the oil sands is certainly warranted given the importance of this resource to Canada. With this positive attention to responsible oil sands development, however, has also come misinformation and flawed representations, which are a real disservice to the people, communities and industry that have worked to make the oil sands a Canadian success story. Like so many, I have lived and worked in the Athabasca oil sands, and this is an opportunity to provide a more balanced view, one that offsets recently published challenges with a track record of performance achievement and the opportunity afforded by this valued resource.
The oil sands story begins with the formation of hydrocarbons at depth, in an area adjacent to the Rocky Mountains of western Alberta, and their subsequent migration over eons of time east up along an incline, to become near surface deposits of bitumen in the Athabasca region. This is a vast resource totaling an estimated 1.7 trillion barrels. Three hundred billion barrels are predicted as recoverable with existing technologies, with 20 percent of the bitumen accessed using surface mining techniques, and the balance using in situ drilling and steam injection technologies. Both of the approaches are still the focus of a significant research effort that continually delivers on improvements to bitumen recovery and environmental performance.
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From an environmental standpoint, there are important considerations to share. Actual land disturbance to date of the North American boreal forest totals less than a couple of hundredths of one percent--an area less than that of the two nearest major cities, Edmonton and Calgary. Also, it should be borne in mind that significant areas have already been reclaimed as operations progress and all disturbed land will be reclaimed as operations conclude. Syncrude Canada Ltd. alone has planted some five million trees and shrubs, reclaimed 4,500 hectares (22 percent) of disturbed lands, recycled 88 percent of its process water, has significantly reduced energy intensity by researching and pioneering low temperature extraction technologies, has spent $100 million on reclamation since 2003, and will spend an estimated $1.6 billion to reduce sulphur dioxide emissions by 60 percent. In addition to reclaimed land returned to a boreal forest state, the area has about 300 bison grazing on these fields, and reconstructed watersheds in the region have won awards for environmental innovation and cutting edge reclamation research.
The oil sands also contribute positively to the economy of Canada. Within the confines of the minimal land disturbance described previously, comes more than a million barrels of production a day to service Canada's energy requirements. There are approximately a quarter of a million jobs linked to the oil sands, and development there in the period from 2000 to 2020 has the potential to generate an estimated $123 billion for provincial and federal governments in the form of royalty and tax revenues. Industry leaders who we have had the pleasure and privilege of working with are also genuinely focused on the future and have supported education, community investment, regional infrastructure working groups and environmental consortiums to ensure responsible development of the oil sands.
The development of the oil sands is a testament to the pioneering spirit, hard work, commitment and ingenuity of the people that made it happen. The people in the region demonstrate their care and commitment through significant volunteerism and often contribute more than any other community in Canada to annual United Way campaigns based on per capita donations. There are significant efforts to support education regionally and provincially, and equally significant is the work to encourage Aboriginal education, employment and business development. It has been a wonderful experience to work with an army of community volunteers who help those in need of support, provide an impressive array of wholesome activities for young and old, and make improvements to the utility and appearance of local facilities. Additionally the air quality in Fort McMurray is also rated as good or better than that in Edmonton, Calgary or Toronto. This is truly a great place to work and raise a family and rivals many cities in terms of quality of life for its residents. It's a community that many are proud to call home.
This is then the oil sands story written by the people, communities and industry that worked to develop the oil sands into the success it is today, providing a safe sustainable energy source serving our society now and into the future.
Gord Winkel is based in Fort McMurray, AB, and is the chair of the Surface Mining Association for Research Technology.
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