Water Use in Canada's Oil Sands Industry: The Facts

Abstract

Abstract Canada's oil sands industry is often perceived as having poor environmental performance. One focus area is the use of water for oil sands production. Bitumen from oil sands is produced by surface mining or by in-situ thermal extraction. Both technologies are water-based. The oil sands deposits are situated in northern Alberta where the river basins have 87% of the provincial average annual water supply but only have 13% of the demand. Oil sands operators have made significant progress in improving freshwater use efficiency and water use represents a small and sustainable percentage of natural supply. For in-situ production, steam is injected into oil sands reservoirs to reduce the oil viscosity to allow its recovery. As an example of continuous improvement, the Imperial Oil Cold Lake in situ oil sands operation has improved freshwater use productivity by 90% since 1985 through produced water recycling and the use of deep saline groundwater. The in situ oil sands industry will remain a sustainable water user into the future (2030) using an estimated 0.04% to 0.09% of available supply from the 3 river basins where they are situated. For oil sands mining, water is used to transport and extract bitumen. Most of the source water comes from the Athabasca River. In 2011, the oil sands mining industry used 0.54% of the average annual flow and 3% of the lowest 2011–2012 winter weekly flow. For growth forecasts to 2030, it is estimated that the oil sands mining industry will require 1.4% of the average annual flow of the Athabasca River. Overall, by 2030, it is projected that the entire oil sands industry will use less than 0.4% of Alberta's average annual water supply to produce 80% of Canada's total oil production.