Sustainable Development

The social and environmental impacts of oil and gas activities increasingly dominate discussions of energy development in Canada. The major issues surround the industry's effects on the environment, wildlife, communities and people. In response, new approaches and practices have been developed by Canadian oil and gas companies for both onshore and offshore activities.

The oil and gas industry has developed codes, guidelines, and operating practices to minimize environmental and social impacts. Research and development, supported by industry and government, aims to stimulate technology advances to reduce direct and indirect impacts through all phases of oil and gas activities - exploration to decommissioning and abandonment.

Some evolving technologies that help minimize ecological impacts are:

• Using electrical power from available electrical grids rather than from diesel/electric generators which can minimize local emissions, noise and disturbance.
• Drilling technology, such as PDC bits and mud motors, can reduce drilling time and minimize disturbance to wildlife.
• Using stream-crossing culverts in place of conventional culverts. Culverts keep the bottom of the streambed in a natural state.
• Extensive use of mulchers, enviro-drills, Light Detection and Ranging (LIDAR), Global Positioning (GPS) and Inertial Navigation (INS) for Low Impact Seismic (LIS) line access. These methods reduce the environmental impact by as much as 50 per cent over conventional techniques.
• Coiled tube drilling allows for smaller well sites, reduces operational noise and permits cleaner operations at drilling sites.

The emphasis on conservation, improved efficiency and the development of new technologies extends through the economic life span of existing and new projects. Those same elements have helped open up development of marginal oil and gas sources such as offshore, northern, and unconventional oil and gas resources including oil sands, extra heavy oil and gas from coal.