Pathways Alliance Advances Net-zero Emissions Plan

The Pathways Alliance, representing Canada’s six largest oil sands companies, is advancing the early work necessary to build one of the world’s largest carbon capture and storage (CCS) facilities in the oil sands region of northern Alberta.

The CCS project is the primary focus of phase one of Pathways Alliance’s ambitious plan to reduce annual emissions from oil sands operations by 22 million tonnes by 2030 and achieve a goal of net-zero emissions by 2050.

“A CCS project of this size is a huge undertaking that requires significant up-front work and a strong partnership between industry and government to proceed,” said Kendall Dilling, president of Pathways Alliance.

“We continue to work with the federal and Alberta governments to ensure Canada’s co-funding programs and regulatory environment for CCS are globally competitive and that emissions reduction targets for our industry are realistic and achievable.

“At the same time, we are in the early stages of engagement with communities on how best we can move forward together on our plan.

“In parallel, we’re progressing work to make sure we’re ready to make an investment decision and start building as soon as the necessary financial and regulatory conditions are in place.”

The first stage of the Pathways Alliance plan includes approximately $16.5 billion of investment by 2030 on the Alliance’s foundational CCS project and $7.6 billion on other emissions reductions projects, for a total of around $24.1 billion.

This follows billions of dollars already invested by member companies to reduce overall emissions per barrel by 22% in the last decade alone.

Pre-work on the Pathways Alliance foundational CCS project to date:

• Early engagement with more than 20 Indigenous communities along the proposed CO₂ transportation and storage network corridor and a commitment to meaningful engagement throughout the full cycle of the network’s operations.
• Selected by the Government of Alberta to continue exploratory work on the Alliance’s ambitious CCS hub to safely and permanently store CO₂ captured from 20+ oil sands facilities and other interested industries in northern Alberta. 
  • More detailed work to evaluate the storage zone will soon begin.
  • The proposed hub could eventually see more than 1.1 billion tonnes of CO₂ safely stored deep underground in a saline aquifer – a critical lever in enabling the Alliance’s goal of net zero by 2050.
• Conducting engineering studies for the phase 1 CO₂ capture facilities.
  • Nine carbon capture feasibility studies involving member companies have been completed on oil sands sites, with engineering work advancing.
• Completed pre-engineering work on the 400-kilometre pipeline that will carry captured CO₂ to the storage hub; more detailed engineering work is about to begin.
• Environmental field programs are underway to support regulatory application submissions for the proposed CO₂ transportation line and storage network. The Alliance is planning to submit those applications in late Q4 of 2023.

This and other work are underway by more than 200 engineers, scientists, and experts from Pathways Alliance companies to advance technologies to achieve the goal of net zero.

SOURCE Pathways Alliance