Living Up to Our Environmental Commitments

Shell Canada and the National Pollution Release Inventory

Special Drilling Spacing Better for Caribou

Innovative Oil sands Processing Saves Energy, Water

Peace River Waste Pit Converted to Well Pad

Smart Car Relay

Since Environment Canada launched its National Pollution Release Inventory (NPRI) in the early 1990s, we have submitted data on substances released from our major facilities. Environment Canada provides this information to the public in a report and on its NPRI web site, which contains the entire emission database in a searchable format.

PollutionWatch, a joint project of the Canadian Environmental Defence Fund, the Canadian Environmental Law Association and the Canadian Institute for Environmental Law and Policy also presents NPRI data. They compile lists of facilities emitting the largest cumulative totals in each province. As we are one of the largest refiners and processors of sour gas in the country, our facilities have appeared on these lists as “high emitters” of some chemicals.
 

It’s important to note that although many chemicals can be dangerous in their pure state, the concentration levels in our stack gases are in the low parts per million. Concentrations are even lower at ground level and do not pose a health risk. It is also important to be clear that we meet all regulated requirements.

We support the NPRI because we recognize the value of an accurate, comprehensive and national emission inventory that is available to the public. However, NPRI ranking data must be interpreted carefully to ensure meaningful conclusions. Data presented without proper context can give an inaccurate picture of our emissions and of public risk. For example, the number of substances reported to NPRI has increased over the past few years. Although facilities may have reduced their emissions of each substance from year to year, the effect of additional reporting can make it appear that the facility is increasing its emissions.

As a company committed to sustainable development, we work to continuously improve our environmental performance by reducing emissions from our facilities.

For example, although our plants already comply with government environmental regulations, we install advanced sulphur recovery technology and/or new, more efficient incinerators and catalysts to further improve efficiency and environmental performance.

In late 2006, the Alberta government approved a key component of our strategy to more sustainably develop our basin centred gas fields near Grande Prairie in northwest Alberta.

Basin-centred natural gas is trapped in deep, low-permeability ‘tight’ underground formations that can be difficult to develop. To recover the gas efficiently, we needed to drill at least four wells per 640-acre section, while creating as little disturbance as possible to the local Woodland Caribou, a species that is sensitive to the loss of continuous forest and the creation of new roads and other access.
 

We believed the answer was to drill directional wells from a small number of drilling pads, and the Alberta government supported our plan. Their precedent-setting approval allows us to drill up to four wells per section on multi-well pads to recover gas from one formation. Pad drilling is better for the environment because the need for new roads, well sites and pipeline rights-of-way that affect caribou and other wildlife is significantly reduced. One large multi-well pad is smaller than five normal well sites, requiring 40 per cent less land than would be needed for five individual well sites and roads. The one road and pipeline needed to access the pad is smaller than the five roads and five pipelines needed for five individual well sites.

Less forest habitat is cleared and less access is created for predators such as humans and wolves compared to stand-alone leases and infrastructure.

In late 2006 we introduced Shell Enhance™ the first commercial application of an innovative froth treatment processing technology that will reduce costs and improve energy efficiency in oil sands production. We plan to use this new technology in Expansion 1 of the Athabasca Oil Sands Project (AOSP).

A good example of how industry and government can work together to develop clean technologies, we developed Shell Enhance with the help of scientists at Natural Resources Canada's CANMET facility in Devon, Alberta.

Shell Enhance uses high temperatures to remove sand, fine clay particles and other impurities from oil sands froth more efficiently. ‘Froth’ is the mixture of oil, solids and water that results from the extraction process.

The result is clean bitumen suitable for upgrading via hydrogen addition, the upgrading method we use at our Scotford Upgrader near Edmonton. Shell Enhance will make the separation process happen at a faster and more efficient rate, using less energy.
 

We’ll be able to use smaller equipment, less water and less energy per barrel than conventional low-temperature paraffinic processing. For example, we expect to use up to 10 per cent less water and up to 10 per cent less energy per barrel of bitumen. From this improvement we also expect to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions associated with oil sands production by about 40,000 tonnes a year.

At our Peace River heavy oil plant in northwest Alberta, we transformed a waste pit into a modern, efficient well pad with 16 producing wellheads that pump heavy oil to the plant. The clay-lined pit, which complied with provincial regulations, contained waste from heavy oil production and tank cleaning.

Seismic surveys identified bitumen reservoirs in and around the pit, so we decided to turn it into a well pad. The environmental footprint was minimal - the well pad was on reclaimed land and the access road was already in place.

690 truckloads of material were hauled to a specialized industrial landfill. Water trapped in the pit was handled by downhole disposal, in accordance with Alberta government regulations, and the pit was filled in.

We hired a number of local people to do the work, including a team of six labourers from a Woodland Cree First Nations company. There were no injury or lost-time incidents, despite weather conditions and a tight construction schedule.

In August 2006, Club Smart Car, an online forum for smart car drivers with approximately 1,000 members in Canada, organized a cross-Canada relay to raise awareness about the smart car’s safety and fuel efficiency benefits.
 

The relay began in Happy Valley-Goose Bay, Newfoundland, and ended nearly 10,000 km later in Victoria, B.C. Nearly 200 smart cars participated, with each driver or group of drivers completing a portion of the journey then passing a wooden baton for the next leg of the relay.
 

Shell Canada sponsored the relay with fuel certificates for each driver, which could be used to purchase Shell’s ultra low sulphur diesel (ULSD), available at our service stations across Canada as of October 2006. The reduced sulphur content in diesel contributes to improved air quality by reducing smog-forming emissions by more than 90 per cent.

As part of our sponsorship, we also hosted a relay stop at our Mill Bay, B.C. station. About 50 drivers stopped in for refreshments, photos and a chance to talk with a Retail Fuel Advisor about our ULSD and how it will contribute to improved air quality for Canadians.

In addition to raising the profile of the smart car, the relay also raised funds for the Bruce Denniston Bone Marrow Society, named after Constable Bruce Denniston, an RCMP officer from Powell River, B.C., who lost his battle with leukemia in 1989.