4 Canada
Finding common ground – the need
for plural voices in lower- carbon
futures of the Alberta oil sands
Luis D. Virla, Jenny Lieu, and Cecilia Fitzpatrick
Sustainability in the Alberta oil sands
The knowledge of oil sands has been part of the Frist Nation cultural heritage
for centuries, not as an energy source but as an isolation material for canoes.
The first historical documents date to the eighteenth century when European
explorers and crown emissaries, brought to the region by fur trading economic
interests, observed and described the abundance of bitumen near the Athabasca
River as a natural substance emanated from the ground (Canadian Association
of Petroleum Producers (CAPP), 2016). One hundred years later, the first
government- sponsored geological study on the Alberta oil sands was performed
and, along with additional expeditions, unveiled a big economic potential for
the use of the resource. During this time, natural gas and conventional oil were
discovered, developed, and used as primary energy source for the communities
in the province (Alberta Ministry of Culture and Tourism, 2016). However,
commercial development of the Alberta oil sands did not begin until the early
1920s with some failed attempts to extract the oil using drilling wells between
1906 and 1917 (Regional Aquatics Monitoring Program, 2016). From this
moment, technologies for oil separation from the sand using hot water were
developed using the same principle as the First Nations people had used in the
past. This technology was mainly applied at a pilot scale and was supported by
governmental institutions such as the federal Department of Mines and the
Alberta Research Council.
The main focus of Alberta oil sands exploitation by that time was roofing
and road surfacing applications (Alberta Ministry of Energy, 2016). It was not
until 1962 that the large- scale oil sands development began. That year, the
government of Alberta developed a specific oil sands policy to supplement
the conventional crude oil policy already in place. The inaugural project was
the Great Canadian Oil Sands (GCOS) Project, later transformed into the
current Suncor Energy, which brought the first oil sands operation ‘on stream’
in 1967. Along with the GCOS, the Syncrude consortium was formed and
shipped its first barrel of oil in 1978, becoming the second major oil sands
producer in Canada (Insitute for Oil Sands Innovation, 2016). Today, the oil
sands attract local and foreign investments. The oil sands region in Alberta is
Finding common ground – the need
for plural voices in lower- carbon
futures of the Alberta oil sands
Luis D. Virla, Jenny Lieu, and Cecilia Fitzpatrick
Sustainability in the Alberta oil sands
The knowledge of oil sands has been part of the Frist Nation cultural heritage
for centuries, not as an energy source but as an isolation material for canoes.
The first historical documents date to the eighteenth century when European
explorers and crown emissaries, brought to the region by fur trading economic
interests, observed and described the abundance of bitumen near the Athabasca
River as a natural substance emanated from the ground (Canadian Association
of Petroleum Producers (CAPP), 2016). One hundred years later, the first
government- sponsored geological study on the Alberta oil sands was performed
and, along with additional expeditions, unveiled a big economic potential for
the use of the resource. During this time, natural gas and conventional oil were
discovered, developed, and used as primary energy source for the communities
in the province (Alberta Ministry of Culture and Tourism, 2016). However,
commercial development of the Alberta oil sands did not begin until the early
1920s with some failed attempts to extract the oil using drilling wells between
1906 and 1917 (Regional Aquatics Monitoring Program, 2016). From this
moment, technologies for oil separation from the sand using hot water were
developed using the same principle as the First Nations people had used in the
past. This technology was mainly applied at a pilot scale and was supported by
governmental institutions such as the federal Department of Mines and the
Alberta Research Council.
The main focus of Alberta oil sands exploitation by that time was roofing
and road surfacing applications (Alberta Ministry of Energy, 2016). It was not
until 1962 that the large- scale oil sands development began. That year, the
government of Alberta developed a specific oil sands policy to supplement
the conventional crude oil policy already in place. The inaugural project was
the Great Canadian Oil Sands (GCOS) Project, later transformed into the
current Suncor Energy, which brought the first oil sands operation ‘on stream’
in 1967. Along with the GCOS, the Syncrude consortium was formed and
shipped its first barrel of oil in 1978, becoming the second major oil sands
producer in Canada (Insitute for Oil Sands Innovation, 2016). Today, the oil
sands attract local and foreign investments. The oil sands region in Alberta is