Oil Sands Mining Research Articles

Industrial application of ceramic nanofiltration membranes for water treatment in oil sands mines

A commercial titania ceramic nanofiltration membrane unit with a permeate flow capacity of 20 m3/h was used to reduce ion concentration, Total Suspended Solids (TSS) and Total Organic Carbon (TOC) in recycle water from a Canadian oil sands mine. This unit, the first of its kind, was tested for almost two years to evaluate membrane performance under actual recycle process water conditions. This paper focuses on the results at a 50% stage cut. A strong correlation between specific flux and rejection was found, with the highest mass rejections observed at the lowest specific flux values. A potential formation of a cake layer on the membrane surface seems to favour the rejection since lower specific flux values improved mass rejection. The analysis of more than 20 ions showed that differences in hydrated ionic sizes and electrostatic phenomena are at play with divalent cations showing the largest rejection. Additional 75–90% TOC and almost 100% TSS rejection was observed. These results indicate that it is possible to implement this technology in an oil sands mine and obtain significant water quality improvements and reducing river water intake.

Dewatering of Naphthenic Bitumen Froth

Bitumen froth is a water-in-bitumen emulsion (~ 30 wt% water, 60 wt% bitumen, and 10 wt% of solids) stream obtained during the water-based extraction process of mined oil sands. The separation of w...

Ecological causal assessment of benthic condition in the oil sands region, Athabasca River, Canada

Contaminant loads to rivers of the Canadian oil sands region are linked to industrial and natural sources. To date, biomonitoring studies have been unable to unequivocally assess potential environmental impacts associated with this development. As part of the Joint Alberta-Canada Oil Sands Monitoring initiative, we aimed to assess cumulative effects of anthropogenic activities and exposure to natural bitumen geology on benthic macroinvertebrate assemblages in the lower Athabasca River. We examined associations among macroinvertebrates and environmental correlates, such as nutrients, ions, metals, polycyclic aromatic compounds, and total suspended solids. The study design included sites within and outside the mineable bitumen deposits, within and outside of the active mining and extraction area, and above and below municipal sewage effluents. We predicted observing a negative association between ecological condition of the river and exposure to natural bitumen and oil sands activity. However, contaminant concentrations in water and sediment were far below known toxicity thresholds, and benthic macroinvertebrate assemblages in sites exposed to oil sands mining activities appeared more affected by nutrient enrichment from the MSE than contaminants from mining or natural bitumen. Although sites within the area of intense oil sands activity showed signs of mild environmental stress, assemblage pattern was more strongly associated with MSE nutrient enrichment than to diffuse contamination from either natural bitumen or oil sands mining. Enrichment likely increases food resources available to consumers, thereby potentially masking toxic responses of consumers to contaminants. Current regulations prohibit the direct release of oil sands contaminants to waterways, with diffuse atmospheric deposition of aerial emissions and fugitive dust the main contaminant pathways to freshwaters. As the storage capacity of tailings ponds is reached, this nutrient-contaminant pattern could change if the river receives the proposed direct release of treated oil sands process water. Focused investigation-of-cause studies are required to better assess the consequences of cumulative interactions and ecological effects of nutrients and contaminant exposure in this system.

Waste Containment Ponds Are a Major Source of Secondary Organic Aerosol Precursors from Oil Sands Operations.

The surface mining and bitumen extraction of oil sands (OS) generates over one million barrels of heavy oil each day in the Alberta Oil Sands Region of Canada. Recent observations suggest that emissions from OS development contribute to secondary organic aerosol (SOA) formation, but the chemical composition, mass fluxes, and sources of those emissions are poorly delineated. Here, we simulated OS extraction and used comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography to quantify and characterize direct air emissions, bitumen froth, residual wastewater, and tailings components, ultimately enabling fate modeling of over 1500 chromatographic features simultaneously. During the non-ice cover season, tailings ponds emissions contributed 15 000-72 000 metric tonnes of hydrocarbon SOA precursors, translating to 3000-13 000 tonnes of SOA, whereas direct emissions during the extraction process itself were notably smaller (960 ± 500 tonnes SOA yr-1). These results suggest that tailings pond waste management practices should be targeted to reduce environmental emissions.

Drivers of understory species richness in reconstructed boreal ecosystems: a structural equation modeling analysis

Understory vegetation accounts for the most diverse part of the plant community in boreal forests and plays a critical role in stand dynamics and ecosystem functions. However, the ecological processes that drive understory species diversity are poorly understood and largely unexplored for reconstructed boreal ecosystems. The current study explored the relationships between understory species richness and biotic and abiotic factors in sites reclaimed after oil sands mining in northern Alberta, Canada, three and six growing seasons post-reclamation. Reclaimed sites with two main surface soils, forest floor mineral soil mix (FFMM) and peat mineral soil mix (PMM), were used along with post-fire benchmarks. A number of soil physicochemical (including nutrients) and vegetation properties were measured and considered in the a-priori hypothesis framework. Structural equation models (SEM) were used to evaluate the multivariate relationships. In general, the FFMM sites had greater species richness than the PMM sites, even six growing seasons after reclamation. A maximum 254% increase in graminoid and shrub cover was observed on FFMM between year 3 and 6 post-reclamation, whereas a maximum 137% increase in forb and bryophyte cover was recorded on PMM. The post-fire sites showed a significant increase (70%) only in shrub cover. Major driving factors of understory species richness varied among soil types. The SEM revealed a strong interdependency between species richness and soil and vegetation factors on FFMM with a positive control from soil N on species richness. In contrast, on PMM soil nutrients had a negative effect on species richness. Temporal changes in the drivers of species richness were mostly observed on FFMM through a negative vegetation control on species richness. The models and significant causal paths can be used in monitoring changes in understory species relationships in reclaimed sites and in identifying future research priorities in similar systems.

Efficient recovery of extra-heavy oil using a naturally abundant green solvent: Toward a more sustainable oil-solid-water separation

Non-aqueous extraction (NAE) at ambient temperature is a promising substitute to the current commercial hot water process for mined oil sand, but several challenges remain largely due to the use of hazardous conventional organic solvents (COS) such as toluene or heptane. In this work, a more sustainable process for separating extra-heavy oil from oil sands ore using β-pinene, a naturally abundant green solvent was developed. The method used to facilitate phase separation was two-stage centrifugation. Experimental parameters investigated included centrifugal force, solvent dosage and extraction time. Results indicated that oil recovery and supernatant product quality using β-pinene were affected by these process parameters, but there was little to no sensitivity to the grade of ore tested. The β-pinene extraction, after two stages of centrifugation, achieved oil recoveries of 96% to 99% for different-grades of ore, the highest yield compared to those often obtained using either toluene or n-heptane. The total water and solids content in the supernatant of the β-pinene extract could be controlled to 0.09 wt% and this is comparable to extraction by toluene. Importantly, the quantity of β-pinene solvent residual in sand after evaporation, although inversely relating to oil recovery, was limited in the range of about 5 to 60 ppm, a level well below the regulation target for a COS. The application of β-pinene solvent as a green alternative in NAE could reduce the safety, environmental, and health concerns associated with the use of a COS.

Species-specific responses to targeted fertilizer application on reconstructed soils in a reclaimed upland area

Forested reclamation of oil sand mines in northern Alberta often use peat salvaged from lowland organic soils as a coversoil during soil reconstruction of man-made landforms. Previous studies suggest that planted tree seedlings may be limited in part by low phosphorus (P) and potassium (K) availability in peat. Fertilization is commonly used to treat nutrient limitations on reclamation sites; however, broad spectrum applications can induce strong competition from colonizing vegetation. This study explores the ability of a targeted application of individual macronutrients to (1) reduce nutrient deficiencies in peat coversoils and improve tree growth, while (2) minimizing the colonizing competition. Liquid fertilizer was applied to 6-yr-old aspen, pine, and spruce trees in the field using five nutrient combinations: control (no fertilizer), NPK, PK, P, and K. Tree growth, foliar nutrient concentrations, vegetation cover, and environmental parameters were monitored over two growing seasons. Aspen responded the strongest to fertilization, particularly in the P treatment, whereas pine and spruce marginally responded to NPK. Competing vegetation increased in the NPK but did not respond to the P and K treatments, indicating targeted fertilization can reduce colonizing competition. Additional analyses of the soil conditions of the site suggest that other factors were potentially more limiting to the trees during the study. Targeted fertilization of forest reclamation sites at a later stand age can be an option to improve efficacy and cost savings; however, response will also depend on other site (e.g., soil pH, precipitation, and soil water content) and management (e.g., fertilizer application rate) factors.

Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy as a surrogate tool for the quantification of naphthenic acids in oil sands process water and groundwater

Naphthenic acid fraction compounds (NAFCs), defined herein as the polar organic compounds extracted from the acidified oil sands process water (OSPW) samples using dichloromethane, are becoming the research hotspot due to their presence in large amount in OSPW and along with other potentially NA-contaminated water streams from the mining site. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) method is commonly used to quantify NAFCs and assumes that the total NA concentration is measured as the sum of the responses for all carboxylic acid functional groups. In this study, the NAFCs in various OSPW and groundwater (GW) samples from an active oil sands mining site were analyzed using FTIR. All water samples were pretreated using either solid-phase extraction (SPE) or liquid-liquid extraction (LLE) methods before analysis. The results showed that SPE produced higher recoveries of NAFCs than LLE for most water samples under current experimental conditions. For the quantification of NAFCs, commercial Fluka NA mixture and a pre-calibrated OSPW extract were employed as the calibration standards. The NAFCs calibrated with Fluka NA mixture and OSPW extract had clear linear relationships. The concentrations of NAFCs obtained using OSPW extract standard curve were 2.5 times the NAFC concentrations obtained using the Fluka NA mixture standard curve. Additionally, good linear correlations were observed between the total NAs and O2-O6 NA species determined by ultra-performance liquid chromatography coupled with time-of-flight mass spectrometry (UPLC-TOFMS) and the NAFCs measured by FTIR. According to these correlations, the NA compositions in NAFCs were developed, and the relative abundances of O2-O6 NA species in NAFCs were similar for SPE and LLE pretreated samples. The findings of this study demonstrated that FTIR could be used as a promising tool to monitor total NA species and to estimate the NA profile in different environmental water samples.

An automated production targeting goal programming framework for oil sands mine planning considering organic rich solids

ABSTRACT In oil sands mining, bitumen and fines contents are used to predict ore processability. However, experimental results show that certain solid fractions known as Organic Rich Solids (ORS) negatively affect the overall bitumen recovery. A conceptual mine planning framework based on a goal programming model for oil sands production scheduling and waste management is presented. Bitumen recovery is additionally adjusted based on the ORS content. The model features automated production targeting (APT) and limited duration stockpiling constraints that optimize the annual production capacities. The model is implemented with two scenarios. Scenario 1 uses processing recovery calculated based on Alberta Energy Regulatory requirements while Scenario 2 uses processing recovery additionally adjusted based on ORS content. Results for Scenario 1 show a 3.46% overestimation of net present value compared to Scenario 2. The APT constraints provide planners a robust and efficient technique for determining annual production tonnages with minimum periodic variations.

DNA metabarcoding reveals metacommunity dynamics in a threatened boreal wetland wilderness

The complexity and natural variability of ecosystems present a challenge for reliable detection of change due to anthropogenic influences. This issue is exacerbated by necessary trade-offs that reduce the quality and resolution of survey data for assessments at large scales. The Peace-Athabasca Delta (PAD) is a large inland wetland complex in northern Alberta, Canada. Despite its geographic isolation, the PAD is threatened by encroachment of oil sands mining in the Athabasca watershed and hydroelectric dams in the Peace watershed. Methods capable of reliably detecting changes in ecosystem health are needed to evaluate and manage risks. Between 2011 and 2016, aquatic macroinvertebrates were sampled across a gradient of wetland flood frequency, applying both microscope-based morphological identification and DNA metabarcoding. By using multispecies occupancy models, we demonstrate that DNA metabarcoding detected a much broader range of taxa and more taxa per sample compared to traditional morphological identification and was essential to identifying significant responses to flood and thermal regimes. We show that family-level occupancy masks high variation among genera and quantify the bias of barcoding primers on the probability of detection in a natural community. Interestingly, patterns of community assembly were nearly random, suggesting a strong role of stochasticity in the dynamics of the metacommunity. This variability seriously compromises effective monitoring at local scales but also reflects resilience to hydrological and thermal variability. Nevertheless, simulations showed the greater efficiency of metabarcoding, particularly at a finer taxonomic resolution, provided the statistical power needed to detect change at the landscape scale.

Downstream River Dialogues: An Educational Journey Toward a Planetary-Scaled Ecological Imagination

Purpose: This article aims to subvert the nature/culture and subject/object divides that structure the dominant Western educational research paradigm by stepping beyond an exclusively human conversation and activating our ecological imaginations in the face of intensifying anthropogenic climate change. Design/Approach/Methods: Informed by animist ecofeminist philosophies, the river dialogues emerged from a climate action research field trip to the Athabasca oil sand mines in Alberta, Canada. They perform a “more-than-human” mode of narrative engagement with “nature in the active voice.” Findings: Despite the epistemological separations of Western-style education, I conclude that we can still find ways to dialogue and learn with the nonhuman world and thereby to stimulate our ecological imaginations. Originality/Value: This article showcases innovative more-than-human narrative methods and offers a collaborative alternative to the human-centric conventions of educational research and pedagogy.

Quantifying variability in well-to-wheel greenhouse gas emission intensities of transportation fuels derived from Canadian oil sands mining operations

How oil sands bitumen is produced (through mining or in situ methods) and how the crude is processed (either upgraded to synthetic crude oil, SCO, or diluted to produce dilbit) result in a range of crude properties with distinct downstream emissions. Previous life cycle studies of the greenhouse gas (GHG) intensities of transportation fuels derived from oil sands bitumen have not accounted for this downstream variability. We quantify, on a project basis as well as across the industry, variability in well-to-wheel (WTW) GHG intensities of transportation fuels from mined oil sands bitumen using detailed upstream, crude transport, and refinery models. Across projects, the mining project producing dilbit has lower median WTW GHG intensity per MJ (low heating value basis) gasoline (median: 96; 80% confidence interval: 93–101 g CO2eq/MJ gasoline) versus SCO projects (median: 108–114; 80% confidence interval across all SCO projects: 106–123 g CO2eq/MJ gasoline) but is strongly influenced by assumptions regarding refinery configuration and allocation to refinery products. Intraproject variability exceeds interproject variability, with 80% confidence intervals for individual projects varying up to 16 g CO2eq/MJ, and is driven in approximately equal proportions by the upstream and refining stages, although their relative contributions vary across projects. Compared to the U.S. EPA baselines, the mining project producing dilbit has a WTW GHG intensities that range from 1% (lower) to 8% (higher) and 2% (lower) to 6% (higher) for gasoline and diesel, respectively (80% confidence intervals). Across mining projects producing SCO, WTW GHG intensities range from 10 to 32% higher and 2–25% higher than the U.S. EPA baselines for gasoline and diesel, respectively. We show how downstream modeling decisions (e.g., allocation of refinery emissions to products such as gasoline) influence WTW GHG intensity distributions, compare mining and in situ bitumen production methods’ GHG intensities, and discuss implications for meeting intensity-based targets.

Response strategies of boreal spruce trees to anthropogenic changes in air quality and rising pCO2

Little is known about how forests adjust their gas-exchange mode while atmospheric CO2 rises globally and air quality changes regionally. The present study aims at addressing this research gap for boreal spruce trees growing in three different regions of Canada, submitted to distinct levels of atmospheric emissions, by examining the amount of carbon gained per unit of water lost in trees, i.e., the intrinsic water use efficiency (iWUE).Under pristine air quality conditions, middle-to long-term trends passed from no-reaction mode to passive strategies due to atmospheric CO2, and short-term iWUE variations mostly ensue from year-to-year climatic conditions. In contrast, in trees exposed to pollutants from a copper smelter and an oil-sands mining region, air quality deterioration generated swift, long-term iWUE rises immediately at the onset of operations. In this case, the very active foliar strategy sharply reduced the intra-foliar CO2 (Ci) pressure. Statistical modeling allowed identifying emissions as the main trigger for the iWUE swift shifts; subsequent combined effects of emissions and rising CO2 led to passive foliar modes in the recent decades, and short-term variations due to climatic conditions appeared all along the series.Overall, boreal trees under different regional conditions modified their foliar strategies mostly without changing their stem growth. These findings underline the potential of acidifying emissions for prompting major iWUE increases due to lowering the stomatal apertures in leaves, and the combined influence of rising CO2 in modulating other foliar responses. A fallout of this research is that degrading air quality may create true divergences in the relationship between tree-ring isotopes and climatic conditions, an impact to consider prior to using isotopic series for paleo-climatic modeling.

Characterizing uncertainty in the hydraulic parameters of oil sands mine reclamation covers and its influence on water balance predictions

Abstract. One technique to evaluate the performance of oil sands reclamation covers is through the simulation of long-term water balance using calibrated soil–vegetation–atmosphere transfer models. Conventional practice has been to derive a single set of optimized hydraulic parameters through inverse modelling (IM) based on short-term (<5–10 years) monitoring datasets. This approach is unable to characterize the impact of variability in the cover properties. This study utilizes IM to optimize the hydraulic properties for 12 soil cover designs, replicated in triplicate, at Syncrude's Aurora North mine site. The hydraulic parameters for three soil types (peat cover soil, coarse-textured subsoil, and lean oil sand substrate) were optimized at each monitoring site from 2013 to 2016. The resulting 155 optimized parameter values were used to define distributions for each parameter/soil type, while the progressive Latin hypercube sampling (PLHS) method was used to sample parameter values randomly from the optimized parameter distributions. Water balance models with the sampled parameter sets were used to evaluate variations in the maximum sustainable leaf area index (LAI) for five illustrative covers and quantify uncertainty associated with long-term water balance components and LAI values. Overall, the PLHS method was able to better capture broader variability in the water balance components than a discrete interval sampling method. The results also highlight that climate variability dominates the simulated variability in actual evapotranspiration and that climate and parameter uncertainty have a similar influence on the variability in net percolation.

Low methane emissions from a boreal wetland constructed on oil sand mine tailings

Abstract. A 58 ha mixed upland and lowland boreal plains watershed called the Sandhill Fen Watershed was constructed between 2008 and 2012. In the years following wetting in 2013, methane emissions were measured using manual chambers. The presence of vegetation with aerenchymous tissues and saturated soils were important factors influencing the spatial variability of methane emissions across the constructed watershed. Nevertheless, median methane emissions were equal to or less than 0.51 mg CH4 m−2 h−1 even from the saturated organic soils in the lowlands. Although overall methane emissions remained low, observations of methane ebullition increased over the 3 study years. Ebullition events occurred in 10 % of measurements in 2013, increasing to 21 % and 27 % of measurements in 2014 and 2015, respectively, at the plots with saturated soils. Increasing metal ion availability and decreasing sulfur availability was measured using buried ion exchange resins at both seasonal and annual timescales potentially as a result of microbial reduction of these ions. Using principle component analysis, methane fluxes had a significant positive correlation to the leading principle component which was associated with increasing ammonium, iron, and manganese and decreasing sulfur availability (r=0.31, p<0.001). These results suggest that an abundance of alternative inorganic electron acceptors may be limiting methanogenesis at this time.

Reducing energy consumption during bitumen separation from oil sand

Oil sands, found in Canada, Venezuela, USA and Russia, contain bitumen, water, clay and some metals. Two different methods of producing oil from oil sands exist: open-pit mining and in situ. Approximately 20% of oil sands are recoverable through open-pit mining.After oil sand is mined, bitumen is separated from solids and water within the bitumen production facilities. The process of bitumen separation consists of 3 main steps. (1) Hot/warm water is added to the oil sands producing a slurry that can be pumped to the processing plant through hydrotransport pipelines which connect ore preparation to the main extraction facility. These large-diameter pipelines can be several kilometers long, providing the additional time and shear required to break down the lumps of mined oil sands. (2) After hydrotransport pipeline oil sand slurry enters flotation facility where bitumen is gravity separated from the coarse solids producing an intermediate bitumen froth product. (3) Then solvent is added to the froth, to reduce the bitumen viscosity and to remove remaining water and fine solids.In addition to efficiency concerns, this separation process suffers from high operating cost due to a number of factors such as the energy needed for heating the water, the energy consumed by the cyclofeeder and the energy consumed by hydrotransport. The other problem of hydrotransport is extensive wear since the slurry contains quartz sand particles which are extremely abrasive.In the present study, an alternative technology based on cavitation jets is suggested. It is found that jets can separate bitumen at low temperatures (5–6 °C) and cavitation jet technologies have the potential to replace hydrotransport.A series of nozzles were designed for low intensity cavitation at high cavitation numbers (σ=0.37 - 0.46) to test different types of cavitation generators. It was shown that selfresonating nozzle shows significantly better results than conventional nozzles and conventional nozzles with passive control.

Profiling low molecular weight organic compounds from naphthenic acids, acid extractable organic mixtures, and oil sands process-affected water by SPME-GC-EIMS

Naphthenic acids (NAs) are complex mixtures of carboxylic acids from petroleum that have industrial applications and that may be released to the environment after oil spills. There is significant research on the chemical composition and toxicity of water-soluble NAs derived from oil sands mining in Alberta, Canada. Yet, little is known about low molecular weight organic compounds (LMWOC) from these sources. Headspace solid-phase microextraction coupled to gas chromatography-electron impact mass spectrometry was used for LMWOC profiling of commercial NA blends, and an acid-extractable organics (AEOs) mixture from a tailings pond. From Sigma 1, Sigma 2, Merichem NAs and the AEO extract, 54, 56, 40 and 4 compounds were identified, respectively. These include aliphatic and cyclic hydrocarbons, carboxylic acids, alkylbenzenes, phenols, naphthalene and alkyl-naphthalene, and decalin compounds. A sample of oil sands process-affected water (OSPW) and aqueous solutions of the NA blends were evaluated for matrix effects on LMWOC profiles. Principal component and clustering analyses revealed that LMWOC profiles of commercial extracts were closely related but distinct from the AEO and OSPW samples. Some of the identified LMWOC are reported to be genotoxic or carcinogenic, and therefore the NA mixtures and AEOs should be considered hazardous materials and further evaluated.

Growth and physiological responses of tree seedlings to oil sands non-segregated tailings

Bitumen recovery from oil sands in northeastern Alberta, Canada produces large volumes of tailings, which are deposited in mining areas that must be reclaimed upon mine closure. A new technology of non-segregated tailings (NST) developed by Canadian Natural Resources Limited (CNRL) was designed to accelerate the process of oil sands fine tailings consolidation. However, effects of these novel tailings on plants used for the reclamation of oil sands mining areas remain to be determined. In the present study, we investigated the effects of NST on seedlings of three species of plants commonly planted in oil sands reclamation sites including paper birch (Betula papyrifera), white spruce (Picea glauca) and green alder (Alnus viridis). In the controlled-environment study, we grew seedlings directly in NST and in the two types of reclamation soils with and without added NST and we measured seedling growth, gas exchange parameters, as well as tissue concentrations of selected elements and foliar chlorophyll. White spruce seedlings suffered from severe mortality when grown directly in NST and their needles contained high concentrations of Na. The growth and physiological processes were also inhibited by NST in green alder and paper birch. However, the addition of top soil and peat mineral soil mix to NST significantly improved the growth of plants, possibly due to a more balanced nutrient uptake. It appears that NST may offer some advantages in terms of site revegetation compared with the traditional oil sands tailings that were used in the past. The results also suggest that, white spruce may be less suitable for planting at reclamation sites containing NST compared with the two studied deciduous tree species.

Retrieval of Surface Soil Moisture From Sentinel-1 Time Series for Reclamation of Wetland Sites

Soil moisture is a key factor in the reclamation of wetland habitats. Understanding the distribution and relative amount of water can be critical in reintroducing trees and grasses to disturbed soils. Soil moisture is also one of the main factors affecting microwave radar backscatter from the ground; while there are other factors determining backscatter levels (for instance, surface roughness, vegetation, and incident angle), relative variations in soil moisture can be estimated using space-based, high resolution, multitemporal synthetic aperture radar (SAR). In this work, relative soil moisture indicators are derived from a time series of Sentinel-1 SAR data over previously mined oil sands in Alberta, Canada. The algorithm provides a relative assessment of soil moisture and requires calibration over wet and dry periods. An evaluation of the soil moisture product is validated using in situ measurements at multiple sites with observations showing agreement from May to August. Comparisons with precipitation records show that SAR derived surface soil moisture is influenced by discreet precipitation events; that is, rainfall that is coincident with the satellite observation reduces the effectiveness of the measurement. The resulting algorithm controls for rain events by including local weather records to adjust estimates based on the known precipitation.

A case study in competing methane regulations: Will Canada’s and Alberta’s contrasting regulations achieve equivalent reductions?

The Canadian federal government and the Province of Alberta (the dominant oil and gas producing province) have released competing methane regulations for the oil and gas sector intended to take effect between January 2020–2023. Provisions in Canadian law could allow the provincial regulations to take precedent, but only if they are deemed to be equivalent in effect. This paper presents a comprehensive technical comparison of these upcoming regulations by considering potential site-by-site mitigation impacts on active oil and gas facilities in Alberta in 2018. This analysis was made possible by first creating a detailed inventory using recent pneumatic device count data and current production and activity data, which allowed detailed site-level calculations of regulatory impacts on a monthly basis as required by the regulations. The federal regulations are found to be stronger, achieving ~26% more methane mitigation at full implementation. Key differences are in limits on pneumatic pump emissions, vented emissions, and expected reductions in fugitive emissions through leak detection and repair surveys. The full analysis was repeated using production and inventory data for 2012 and 2017 to examine sensitivities to changing production patterns and facilitate comparisons to the 2012 baseline referenced in federal policy targets for methane reduction. The results were robust in all scenarios. Through a “Potential to Emit” threshold, the federal regulations also impact slightly fewer sites overall by exempting small sites handling limited gas volumes, while achieving greater overall methane reductions. Relative to a 2012 baseline, if fully implemented in 2018 the federal regulations would just reach the bottom of the 40–45% methane reduction target through a combination of past reductions (13%) and additional regulated mitigation (27%). However, recent trends in emissions from mined oil sands operations in particular (which are not affected by these regulations) suggests the 40–45% reduction goal for the overall sector may not be achieved by the 2025 target. Different scenarios to make the regulations equivalent are briefly discussed where the contrast in achieved mitigations for different key sources is important case study data for design of effective and efficient methane regulations.