Today’s story is out of Canada (seems like our stories are often out of there!) and specifically the province of Alberta. The heart of the oil sands industry has just approved three new projects worth about $3 billion USD, or $4 billion CDN, of potential investments which could add up to 95,000 barrels of oil per day. Kind of a big deal.
Blackpearl Resources’ s Blackrod, Surmont Energy’s Wildwood, and Husky Energy’s Saleski are the first projects to get the green light since Alberta set a 100-megatonne greenhouse cap on oil sands emissions.
“The emissions limit is the first of it’s kind set by an energy-producing jurisdiction,” Environment Minister Shannon Phillips said in a statement, “It positions Alberta as an environmental leader while allowing room for development.”
The approval of the three proposals follows a thorough review by the Alberta Energy Regulator. The firms involved, however, still need to make final investment decisions and work with regulators on specific licenses and approvals.
We are very excited to hear about this potential investment. Alberta was severely damaged in the spring of 2016 by the wildfires that tore through the Fort McMurray area. The fires ultimately shut down about 1 million barrels per day worth of production. It was estimated that the fires cost Alberta $390 million and the entire Canadian economy shrunk to levels not seen since 2009.
Luckily for Alberta, our earthmoving equipment loves to go to work in the oil sands!
*All info for this story was taken from mining.com.
