U of C, NEC join forces

Darcell Vickaryous is a power engineering student at the Medicine Hat College.

Western Canadian Pipeline

The University of Calgary and Natural Resources Canada have joined forces to create a geoscience research centre in the city with a focus on energy and the environment.

A new research agreement, signed in March, will see the university's geosciences department share laboratory space and equipment with the Geological Survey of Canada, at their facility located near the university campus.

Research will focus on the energy potential of the Canada's Arctic, with a focus on sustainable development in the area. Carbon capture and storage, and other emissions-reduction technology will also be studied.

U of C scientists will also work alongside the geological survey, giving them the ability to conduct research in locations which in the past have been considered prohibitively expensive for the university.

CAPP launches responsible energy program

ANDREA KLASSEN Western Canadian Pipeline

Canada’s largest upstream oil and gas lobby organization will turn the microscope on its member companies in 2010 with the launch of a new Responsible Canadian Energy program.

RCE will replace the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers’ 11 year-old Stewardship Program, says CAPP VP Janet Annesley.

Started in 1999, the Stewardship Program required CAPP member companies to design and implement safety and environmental management systems, and publicly report on their progress.

The RCE program will continue that, Annesley says, but focus on providing more data and greater transparency to the Canadian public,

"I don't think people commonly understood what ‘stewardship’ meant,” Annesley told Western Canadian Pipeline in a telephone interview. “So they're going to see a clearer program, a more easily understood program.”

"The word 'responsibility' is clearly understood, so we're going to measure ourselves by that word - responsibility."

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The program is mandatory for CAPP’s member companies, who produce about 90 per cent of the country’s oil and natural gas. Companies will supply CAPP with data on the safety, social and environmental practices, which will then be compiled into a yearly, publicly available report.

Annesley says the new report - the first of which will be release in early fall - will contain more data than current Stewardship reports. It will also highlight both industry improvements and weaknesses, giving companies a chance to discuss new strategies and offer explanations when improvements aren’t being made.

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"Much of this data is reported to the regulator (the ERCB in Alberta), and a lot of this data's also reported at the national level to Environment Canada,” she added. "Whereas the ERCB and Environment Canada don't turn around an industry- specific report to Canadians, we will."

The new program will again zero in on management systems, asking companies to measure the effectiveness of their current systems, or implement new ones to deal with environmental and social impacts.

Alberta’s much beleaguered oil-sands will also be a key focus for the new program.

“We know there is added scrutiny on oilsands performance,” Annesley says. “And we're looking at ways we can better communicate about those operations."

"Our performance is our reputation,” she adds. “So by reporting as clearly and simply as possible our performance, we are able to show where industry is going. And that demonstrates continuous improvement can be done."

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