Fresh, clean water is a critical natural resource, which we don’t take for granted. As part of our oil sands operations, we use fresh water for generation of steam and cooling. While fresh water sources are utilized initially for the water required for bitumen separation, the process water is recycled continuously. Our goal is to draw on as little fresh water resources as reasonably possible.

Gold Bar Project: Conserving Fresh River Water

We worked closely with the City of Edmonton and Strathcona County to invest in the adaptation of the award winning Gold Bar Wastewater Treatment Plant. The plant supplies recycled waste water to our Edmonton refinery as part of the oil sands project to convert the refinery feedstock from conventional oil to bitumen. The final phase of the project was completed at the end of 2007, resulting in 5.5 million litres of treated waste water being supplied each day by the Gold Bar plant project to our facility instead of taking the equivalent amount of fresh water from the North Saskatchewan River.

The project has received numerous industry awards, including the most recent 2007 Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment Pollution Prevention Innovation Award, as well as the 2007 Alberta Emerald Foundation Award.

Fort Hills Sturgeon Upgrader

In the spirit of Alberta’s Water for Life Strategy, the Fort Hills Sturgeon Upgrader project team has strived to reduce the impact of the planned Sturgeon Upgrader on the North Saskatchewan River. Rather than using fresh water from the nearby North Saskatchewan River, and building on the water conservation success of Petro-Canada’s Edmonton refinery and Gold Bar Wastewater Treatment Plant initiative, the plan is to use, reclaimed waste water from the Alberta Capital Region Wastewater Commission Treatment Plant (ACRWC) as process water for the proposed Sturgeon Upgrader. The upgrader will run solely on reclaimed waste water - in a full circle cycle — and send the effluent back to the ACRWC for further treatment and redistribution. The use of reclaimed waste water by the upgrader will result in lower nutrient loads to the North Saskatchewan River than would otherwise occur, and is also consistent with the goals outlined in the Water Management Framework for the Industrial Heartland and Capital Region.

MacKay River: Recycling 90% of Produced Water

Our MacKay River in situ plant is carefully managed to reduce the draw on groundwater aquifers and surface water and mitigate the risks to water quality associated with wastewater treatment.

Our steam-to-oil ratio is one of the lowest in the region, which means we require less water for steaming to extract the bitumen than competing steam assisted gravity drainage (SAGD) projects. And, by adding a zero liquid discharge process of the water we do require, 90% is recycled for further use. The result is that for every barrel of heavy oil produced, we use about one-third of a barrel of subsurface water — far less than conventional steam-assisted recovery methods.

We believe the most effective way to protect the quality of groundwater is to eliminate the possibility of a release of process water or chemicals. Our facilities are designed and operated to mitigate this risk. The potential negative effect of high sediment concentrations on the aquatic populations during periods of high runoff has been managed through careful design of the well pads and road infrastructure so that water courses are not affected, and operating practices are in place that reduce the potential for runoff. Systems such as leak detectors are used to help quickly identify any releases, and emergency response plans are in place to react where necessary.

The Fort Hills Mine: On-Site Storage for Low-Flow Periods

At the Fort Hills mine site, we recognize the anticipated draw we’ll have on the Athabasca River and the concern for how the regional ecosystems may be stressed during periods of low seasonal flows. In conjunction with key stakeholders, we’ve developed a strategy to safeguard the aquatic ecosystem during low flow periods, and we work with other operators to share this precious resource regionally to ensure economic stability without compromising the environment.

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