A different kind of exploration in the oil patch

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Jim Carter, the former president of oil sands miner Syncrude Canada Ltd., recently returned from a trip to Abu Dhabi, where he attended the World Future Energy Summit. Mr. Carter was named chair of the Alberta Carbon Capture and Storage Development Council in April, 2008, and has become a leading proponent of the province's bid to develop the greenhouse gas-busting technology.

Alberta has spent $2-billion to build four pilot carbon-capture-and-storage (CCS) sites. It's a controversial investment in a province that has careened into multi-year deficits, but Mr. Carter's time in the Middle East convinced him Alberta could become a global technological leader if it continues on its path.

What stood out for you most from your trip?

I was there making a presentation on CCS and what Alberta had accomplished and was attempting to do. There was a lot of positive talk about Alberta's efforts in that regard. We as a province have really demonstrated leadership on this file.

What potential do you see for Alberta as it develops CCS technology?

The energy-producing areas of the world are looking at how they can also contribute to reducing their carbon footprint.

For example, you've got Abu Dhabi developing a green city, called Masdar, which will essentially have a zero carbon footprint at the end of the day. It will have electric transportation, solar and wind power and CCS. And so here you have one of the United Arab Emirates that has 98 billion barrels of crude reserves and they're putting their effort into helping lead the way in reducing carbon-dioxide emissions. They were very impressed by the work that Alberta has done, and will be having further discussions with Alberta on advancing that.

What do you see happening in those discussions?

I think there will be some collaboration around how we move forward and share information as they advance their efforts as well.

So what kind of business opportunity do you see?

Any time you have the knowledge and know-how for implementing this kind of technology, it has some intrinsic market value. Those that are pioneering it will have the opportunity to make that available to the rest of the world - whether that be in the form of selling the know-how to other countries, or whether it be creating other business opportunities by virtue of knowledge in this field.

But I think, for Canada and Alberta, the real benefit will be applying it here at home and reducing our carbon footprint as we continue to develop our energy resources. It will create jobs because it creates capital investment and pipelines to transport carbon, and engineering to store and monitor it, and all those things.

Total SA has done work on CCS, as has Statoil ASA; are France and Norway not technologically ahead of Canada?

I don't really think so. We're right up there on the leading edge. And around the world it is becoming more of a technology that's viewed as probably the most available in the immediate future to reducing CO{-2} emissions while utilizing fossil fuels. Alberta, by virtue of its pragmatic approach, will be sought after to help identify the path forward for other countries as well.

But how can you make money off a technology that doesn't have a clear path to commercial viability?

Right now obviously the biggest challenge is an economic one given the value of carbon [which, given that most jurisdictions have not yet taxed emissions, is too low for CCS to be profitable] But if we sit around and wait for the right value of carbon, we will not have developed the technology to the point where we feel comfortable using it to help solve the problems. A lot of countries are coming to that conclusion.

Do you not see more benefit in investing in post-hydrocarbon solutions than investing in maintaining the current carbon economy?

No. As you look at population growing by 1.5 billion people in the world between now and 2030, the demand for energy is going to increase by 40 to 45 per cent. We're going to need all forms of energy to satisfy that appetite.

Fossil fuels are still going to have a big part of that because they are such a major component of the energy supply around the world, and it's so difficult to make large changes in such a short time frame. So we've got to have a way of helping to reduce the impact of hydrocarbons on the carbon footprint, and this is one of the technologies that's going to enable that to happen.