Petro-Canada’s international assets are focussed in a few core areas, including the North Sea, Libya, Syria and Trinidad and Tobago. As we grow our operated activity in these areas, social responsibility, safety and environmental performance remain our top priorities.
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North Sea
Petro-Canada has developed considerable subsea expertise through our operated fields in the United Kingdom (U.K.): Guillemot West, Pict, Clapham and Saxon. In the Netherlands, we have delivered high levels of performance from the Hanze and De Ruyter oil platforms. In addition, over the last two years our North Sea exploration program has resulted in several discoveries in both the U.K. and the Netherlands, with operated exploration in Norway set to begin during 2009.
Safety and the achievement of Zero-Harm remains our highest priority, and we continue to develop our safety culture across the North Sea through a number of ongoing initiatives, including Zero-Harm forums, offshore crew conferences and improved engagement with our key contractors.
Additionally, in the U.K., we recently made a discovery in the outer Moray Firth area, which is adjacent to a Special Area of Conservation. We are working closely with other operators and specialist contractors to develop contingency plans that reflect the area’s unique sensitivities.
Throughout our North Sea operations, we have worked with our partners to improve the efficiency of oil-in-water treatment systems. Our current levels of “overboard oil in water" are well below the regulatory permitted levels. In the Netherlands, we achieved significant improvement in this area as a result of a new produced water injection system, which came into operation in mid-2007. In fact, the management systems in place in our Netherlands operations were identified in 2008 as a best practice within Petro-Canada. We continue to focus on high environmental performance in the Netherlands.
As a result of the Kyoto Protocol requirements and subsequent Dutch national emissions trading system, we have developed Carbon Dioxide (CO2) and Nitrogen Oxide (NOx) monitoring plans for our producing assets in the Netherlands, which are now approved by the authorities. Our greenhouse gas emissions in the Netherlands continue to be below the allocated emissions allowance. We are also developing an Energy Efficiency Plan during 2009 as part of our participation in a wider industry initiative in the Netherlands, called the Covenant for Energy Efficiency.
In 2008, Petro-Canada operations in Norway focused on two main areas: the execution of seismic surveys and preparation for the 2009 drilling program. A geophysical survey and an electromagnetic survey were successfully conducted, and a Zero-Harm awareness program was completed for employees and contractors. In 2008, we completed the development of a management system for our operations in Norway, carried out emergency response training and continued the process of engaging with our Norwegian stakeholders.
Libya
Petro-Canada signed new Exploration and Production Sharing Agreements (EPSAs) in 2008, which extended our participation in Libya for another 30 years. This enables Petro-Canada to increase investment in exploration and development programs and increase our participation as an operator. Our goal is to double our current production in Libya by 2015 and conduct new exploration on our 30,000 square kilmoetres of acreage in the highly prospective Sirte Basin.
The new EPSAs present Petro-Canada with many opportunities to transfer knowledge and technology; we have already begun to share our experience in addressing safety and environmental challenges with our partner, the National Oil Corporation (NOC). Since signing the new EPSAs our seismic operations have reached more than 2 1/2 million man-hours without incurring a lost-time incident. Our new EPSAs allow us to recruit staff from the NOC and put in place a program for the development and coaching required to eventually fill many of our key senior posts with Libyan nationals. Petro-Canada has also committed $100 million US to a Sustainable Development Fund as part of its signature bonus. The NOC and Petro-Canada jointly select development projects for funding, and Petro-Canada is responsible for the execution of project initiatives and the ongoing management of the Fund.
Syria
Petro-Canada has 100% operated interest in two onshore gas fields in Syria, which we are developing as the Ebla gas project. When completed in 2010, the Ebla plant is expected to deliver natural gas to domestic markets. At the end of 2008, the Ebla facility was 50% complete having just one Loss Time Incident (LTI). Our approach to safety and the environment also led to joint efforts between Petro-Canada, Syrian authorities and environmental non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to mitigate our potential impact on a small colony of Northern Bald Ibis, an endangered species of migratory bird. The timing for construction of the Ebla gas pipeline was changed in order to minimize the impact on the bird’s habitat and feeding grounds.
Trinidad and Tobago
In Trinidad and Tobago, Petro-Canada undertook a significant eight-well offshore exploration program in 2007 and 2008, which was our first operated endeavour in this region. A key challenge was to ensure that consistent Petro-Canada engineering and operating standards with respect to safety and the environment were incorporated into our projects in Trinidad and Tobago. To achieve this, we successfully transferred our safety and environmental expertise from our other offshore operating areas (the North Sea and East Coast Canada) in areas such as emergency response and spill management. A number of large exercises in oil spill response were conducted both onshore and offshore in Tobago, which provided an opportunity to develop the knowledge and skills of local contractors and workforce.
Prior to conducting our exploration activity off Tobago, we held extensive public consultations and visited with fishing communities across the island. This gave us an opportunity to explain our activities, understand any concerns residents may have, and ensure that our operations had minimum impact on them. During the program, our Fishing Liaison Officer kept local communities continuously informed on our activity and reported any community concerns or requests. As a result of these regular consultations, we responded to community requests by providing numerous safety training courses and distributing safety equipment, including radar reflectors and global positioning systems.
Reinforcing Best Practice with Petro-Canada’s Contractors
The development of our international operations relies heavily on the use of contractors, and particularly local contractors in Libya, Syria and Trinidad and Tobago. We continue to focus on transferring mature programs from East Coast Canada and North Sea to these regions to improve safety and environmental capability in local contractors. We strive to communicate our expectations and manage the performance of contractors with regard to their safety, environmental, ethical and employee practices. Our maturing social risk assessment process provides a deeper understanding of the social context and the risks that we need to address as our operations continue to expand.
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