Critics and researchers hope that an unprecedented team-up between Alberta's oilsands producers will speed up reclamation of Alberta's tailings ponds.
Alberta's seven oilsands companies announced Monday they have formed a new partnership to promote tailings research. The companies involved are Canadian Natural Resources, Imperial Oil, Shell, Suncor Energy, Syncrude, Teck Resources and Total E&P.
Companies have spent millions over the years trying to find a way to get rid of the toxic liquid tailings produced by oilsands production. Ponds of those tailings now cover about 170 sq. kilometres of northern Alberta, according to the Pembina Institute, about five times the size of St. Albert.
The seven companies have agreed to share all their tailings research and technology with each other and with outside researchers without worrying about patents, profits or costs, says John Broadhurst, vice president of Shell's oilsands development division. They would also collaborate on all future research and have their research subject to regular peer review.
"We're confident that through this relationship, we can find ways to manage tailings and advance reclamation quickly and efficiently."
This is an exciting development, says Randy Mikula, lead tailings researcher at the federal CanmetENERGY Research & Development program in Devon, one that could speed many technologies into commercial use. A similar partnership once led to the creation of consolidated tailings technology, he noted, formerly the leading way to get rid of tailings ponds. "This is going to be huge."
Speeding up clean-up
The team-up was in part prompted by the Alberta Energy and Resources Conservation Board's Directive 74, Broadhurst says, which required companies to turn half of their liquid tailings into a solid, trafficable form by 2013. Just two of the nine tailings plans submitted to the province last year actually met that requirement, according to the Pembina Institute.
"Directive 74 was like switching to a sprint in the middle of your marathon," Broadhurst says. Companies are now under great public pressure to manage their tailings by the deadline.
Suncor is one of the only companies currently on track to meet Directive 74. The Energy Resources Conservation Board (ERCB) has granted several other companies extensions.
This new agreement will let Suncor share its successful tailings technology with others so they don't have to go over the same ground, says spokesperson Shelley Powell. Suncor uses flocculants that help condense tailings rapidly.
"What's good for the industry is good for Suncor as well."
The deal should break down a lot of doors between companies to speed up research, says Syncrude spokesperson Brian Schleckser. The companies have yet to finalize their research plans but expect to spend about $90 million next year on tailings research.
Pooling research would let scientists build on many promising technologies, Mikula says. Syncrude has experimented with centrifuges and rim-ditching, for example, both of which can solidify tailings in months (compared to at least 500 years naturally) and could benefit from larger trials.
This is a positive step for the industry, says Dave Burkhart, oilsands researcher with the World Wildlife Fund's St. Albert office, but it doesn't have much substance to it. The group has no clear research goals, he notes, and does not indicate how it would slow the pace of tailings production. "They're growing at a phenomenal rate."
Oilsands companies have had decades to work on the tailings problem and have yet to solve it, Burkhart says. "They have to start showing some progress in tailings reclamation if the public is going to accept this as anything more than a PR effort."
