Forget out-of-date 'dirty oil' smear, Alberta moving to be world's cleanest oil industry

[Tom Kirkman + 8,860]

Greta may need to make another pollution-spewing oil-guzzling overseas jaunt (First Class) to counter this rapscallion Canadian upstart.  How dare he!

Forget out-of-date 'dirty oil' smear, Alberta moving to be world's cleanest oil industry 

Alberta will soon have the cleanest oil industry in the world.

We’re entering a golden age for oilsands production. The massive industrial-scale nature of oilsands production worked for decades to make producing oil in the Fort McMurray region a higher-cost and higher-emissions proposition.

But this equation is now getting turned on its head.

Oilsands production is now stable, which has transformed it into a long-term, reliable mining and manufacturing operation, not an ongoing and risky oil and gas exploration and extraction play. This dynamic is the main driver in the ability of oilsands companies to deliver on lower costs and emissions.

Even our notoriously oil-ambivalent federal government is giving credit where it’s due, noting on its natural resources website that: “Due to technological and operational efficiency improvements, oilsands emissions per barrel have decreased 28% from 2000 to 2017.”

The new mantra of the oilsands is “continuous improvement,” the notion that hundreds of small changes over the many years of an oilsands plant’s life cycle can add up to huge improvements when it comes to producing cleaner energy at lower cost.  ...

 

 

Cue the outrage ...

 

 

 

Yes, I'm recycling this meme, because it is so dang good.

[Enthalpic + 1,496]

The SAGD operations appear to be a lot better than the older open pit mines - at least on the literal surface (of the earth).

 

Edited November 15, 2019 by Enthalpic

[Enthalpic + 1,496]

That's actually from the Edmonton Journal too, not the Sun News trash rag.

[Tom Kirkman + 8,860]

1 minute ago, Enthalpic said:

That's actually from the Edmonton Journal too, not the Sun News trash rag.

Yep.

https://edmontonjournal.com/business/local-business/forget-out-of-date-dirty-oil-smear-alberta-moving-to-be-worlds-cleanest-oil-industry

[El Nikko + 2,145]

I've done my part for the environment, our oil fired boiler broke down 5 weeks ago so we've been freezing our butts off.

I've told my daughter to tell her leftie teacher that she came home and told me that I was stealing her future so I turned it off to save the world. I've also told her to tell him that my wife and I got pneumonia and the early onset of frostbite.

She's a good kid

[Jan van Eck + 7,558]

18 hours ago, El Nikko said:

I've done my part for the environment, our oil fired boiler broke down 5 weeks ago so we've been freezing our butts off.

I think  I can safely say that if you lived in Vermont and your oil furnace was out for five weeks, then either you had a great-quality wood-stove to keep you warm, or right now you would be typing us from Valhalla.

[Gerry Maddoux + 3,627]

22 hours ago, Enthalpic said:

The SAGD operations appear to be a lot better than the older open pit mines - at least on the literal surface (of the earth).

 

While you'd still have to call the SAGD technique "nonconventional," it may well be the most efficient methodology in the world to exploit the greatest percentage of oil in place (>50% and sometimes up to 75% depending on the penetrability of steam to the lower reaches of bitumen). The Athabasca sands deposit is massive so it's a good thing this stuff is bitumen or it would put the rest of us out of business. Anyway, kudos to them for coming up with the technique, which is ingenuous in its own right.