Oil Sands Watch | Pembina Institute
 

Climate Impacts

Average greenhouse gas emissions for oil sands extraction and upgrading are estimated to be 3.2 to 4.5 times as intensive per barrel as for conventional crude oil produced in Canada or the United States.1
  • On average, producing one barrel of synthetic crude oil from the oil sands results in 111 kilograms of CO2 equivalent emissions.2 The greenhouse gas emissions from individual projects cover a broad range because of differences in technologies, practices and oil sands quality from project to project.
  • Mining techniques in the oil sands result in 62 to 164 kilograms of CO2 equivalent emissions per barrel.3
  • In situ techniques result in 99 to 176 kilograms of CO2 equivalent emissions per barrel.4
  • Average emissions per barrel for conventional crude oil production are 35.2 kilograms of CO2 equivalent in Canada and 24.5 kilograms of CO2 equivalent in the U.S.5
About 5% of Canada’s total greenhouse gas emissions come from oil sands plants and upgraders.6
  • Oil sands plants and upgraders produce roughly 40 million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions every year.7
  • According to Alberta’s Specified Gas Emitters Regulation, only companies that emit at least 100,000 tonnes of greenhouse gas pollution each year must report their emissions.8 About 14% of oil sands production comes from small companies that are not required to report their emissions.
Oil sands are the fastest growing source of greenhouse gas emissions in Canada.9
  • Environment Canada projected that oil sands operations could account for about 44% of the increase in Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions from 2006 to 2020. In Environment Canada’s “reference case” projection, oil sands emissions would rise from 4% of the national emissions in 2006 to 12% in 2020.10
If Alberta were a country its per capita greenhouse gas emissions would be higher than any other country in the world.
  • Alberta’s greenhouse gas emissions intensity was 70.2 tonnes of CO2 equivalent per person in 2005.11
  • Internationally, Qatar had the highest emissions intensity in 2005 (66.6 tonnes per person) and Canada ranked ninth (22.9 tonnes per person).12

 

  1. 1. National Energy Technology Laboratory, Development of Baseline Data and Analysis of Life Cycle Greenhouse Gas Emissions of Petroleum-Based Fuels, DOE/NETL-2009/1346 (November 2008), 12, table 2-4.
  2. 2. National Energy Technology Laboratory, Development of Baseline Data and Analysis of Life Cycle Greenhouse Gas Emissions of Petroleum-Based Fuels, DOE/NETL-2009/1346 (November 2008), 12, table 2-5.
  3. 3. Alex Charpentier, Joule Bergerson and Heather MacLean, “Understanding the Canadian oil sands industry’s greenhouse gas emissions,” Environmental Research Letters 4 (2009): 014005.
  4. 4. Alex Charpentier, Joule Bergerson and Heather MacLean, “Understanding the Canadian oil sands industry’s greenhouse gas emissions,” Environmental Research Letters 4 (2009): 014005.
  5. 5. National Energy Technology Laboratory, Development of Baseline Data and Analysis of Life Cycle Greenhouse Gas Emissions of Petroleum-Based Fuels, DOE/NETL-2009/1346 (November 2008), 12, table 2-4.
  6. 6. Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, Environmental Challenges and Progress in Canada’s Oil Sands (2008), 4.
  7. 7. Matthew Bramley, Dan Woynillowicz and Derek Neabel, The Climate Implications of Canada’s Oil Sands Development (Drayton Valley, AB: The Pembina Institute, 2006), 5.
  8. 8. Alberta Environment, Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program (accessed September 23, 2009).
  9. 9. The ecoENERGY Carbon Capture and Storage Task Force, Canada’s Fossil Energy Future (Natural Resources Canada, 2008).
  10. 10. Environment Canada, Turning the Corner: Detailed Emissions and Economic Modelling (2008), 42.
  11. 11. Alberta’s total greenhouse gas emissions in 2005 were 233 megatonnes of CO2 equivalent (Environment Canada, National Inventory Report: Greenhouse Gas Sources and Sinks in Canada 1990–2005, table A11-19) and its population was 3.32 million people (Statistics Canada, “Population by year, by province and territory”).
  12. 12. World Resources Institute, Climate Analysis Indicators Tool—Yearly Emissions (accessed December 11, 2009).