Pathways advancing northern Alberta carbon capture network, despite ongoing negotiations

Imperial Oil's Strathcona Refinery is pictured near Edmonton on Friday Sept. 2, 2005. (John Ulan)

The Pathways Alliance group of oilsands companies has issued a request for proposals to pipe manufacturers for the massive carbon capture and storage network it wants to build in northern Alberta.

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The CEO of Imperial Oil Ltd., one of the six oilsands majors behind the proposed $16.5-billion project, provided the update on his company's third-quarter earnings call Friday.

He said the RFP was issued in the third quarter.

"We have gone out to potential pipe suppliers and asked them to give us proposals on costs and timing because we do see this as a critical path going forward," Corson said.

The news is the first significant public update the Pathways Alliance has provided in months.

The group previously spent millions of dollars on a countrywide public relations blitz aimed at demonstrating that the oilsands industry is committed to helping fight climate change through the use of carbon capture and storage.

But the Pathways Alliance has been noticeably quieter in the wake of the passage of new federal anti-greenwashing legislation in June. Like other energy-sector companies, Pathways members have significantly cut down on their communications related to environmental efforts in light of the new rules, which they say are too vague and could open up companies to frivolous lawsuits.

The Pathways Alliance proposed project would aim to capture carbon dioxide emissions from more than 20 oilsands facilities and transport them 400 kilometres away by pipeline to a terminal in the Cold Lake area, where they would be stored in an underground storage hub.

The aim is to help the oilsands industry, the largest source of emissions in the country, achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions from oilsands production by 2050.

But while the companies first proposed the joint project in 2022, they have not yet made the final investment decision required to proceed. Pathways has spent much of the time since then lobbying for federal and provincial support.

And while the federal government has created an investment tax credit for carbon capture and storage projects, as well as promised a mechanism to backstop the price of carbon in order to give certainty to companies considering investing in emissions reducing technology, details of a project-specific agreement have yet to be hammered out.

Corson said Friday negotiations with the federal and Alberta governments continue.

The Globe and Mail recently reported that the federal Canada Growth Fund, which has provided support for other proposed carbon capture projects in this country, has put a formal proposal forward for Pathways to consider.

"We want to move this forward as much as we can, but there comes a point that it will be time to order the pipe and make a large investment, and we need to have the right fiscal framework ... before we can make those investments," Corson said Friday.

In the meantime, Corson said Pathways continues to advance early-stage engineering and design work for the project, and is also consulting with communities and First Nations along the proposed pipeline's route.

It also began filing earlier this year for regulatory approval for its project.

Pathways president Kendall Dilling has previously said the group cannot make a final investment decision until that regulatory approval is granted.

But he has also said that if the group goes ahead with a formal order for pipe, that should be interpreted as a serious commitment and a signal the project will likely be a go.

Corson reiterated that message Friday.

"Once we have the right economic framework in place, then we will be in position to go order the line pipe," he said.

"That's what you should be looking for, is when do we get the final terms with the governments? And then when do we place the order for pipe? ... The most critical thing is this pipe order, OK?"

If the Pathways Alliance project is constructed as proposed, it would be one of the largest carbon capture and storage projects in the world.

Imperial Oil Ltd. reported a third-quarter profit Friday of $1.24 billion, down from $1.60 billion in the same quarter last year.

The company said the profit amounted to $2.33 per diluted share for the quarter ended Sept. 30, down from $2.76 per diluted share a year earlier.

The result came as Imperial's total revenue and other income amounted to $13.26 billion for the quarter, down from $13.92 billion in the same quarter last year.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 1, 2024