Oil sands producers launch environmental performance alliance

The public’s expectation of environmental performance in the oil sands continues to evolve. We want to meet those expectations and we’ll work collaboratively to do so, building on previous successes. Coming together today to sign the charter is a significant and important step for all our companies and marks a pivotal point for our industry.
John C. Abbott, Executive Vice President, Heavy Oil, Shell Canada Ltd.

Chief executive officers of 12 companies signed the alliance’s founding charter today, committing to COSIA’s vision to “enable responsible and sustainable growth of Canada’s oil sands while delivering accelerated improvement in environmental performance through collaborative action and innovation.”

The creation of COSIA as an independent alliance builds on work done over the past several years by both oil sands industry members and research and development organizations. COSIA will take these efforts to a much larger scale and will help the industry address environmental challenges by breaking down barriers in the areas of funding, intellectual property enforcement and human resources that may otherwise impede progress on environmental performance. COSIA’s collaborative approach will accelerate the discovery and development of environmental technologies and reduce the time from idea to implementation.

COSIA also today announced Dr. Dan Wicklum as the Chief Executive of the new alliance. Dr. Wicklum has a background in environmental science and was selected following a national search. His scientific qualifications and leadership experience position him well to lead COSIA, a science-based alliance focused on environmental technology and innovation.

“I am confident COSIA will greatly accelerate innovation and environmental performance in priority areas that Canadians care most about,” said Dr. Wicklum. “Today is just the beginning and I am excited to be part of this new alliance. We understand we have a lot of work to do and we are looking forward to working with our stakeholders and reporting on our progress along the way.”

COSIA will establish structures and processes through which oil sands producers and other stakeholders can work together for the benefit of the environment. The alliance will identify, develop and apply solutions-oriented innovation around the most pressing oil sands environmental challenges, specifically water, land, greenhouse gases and tailings, and will communicate COSIA’s efforts and successes in addressing those challenges.

Jean-Michel Gires, president of Total E&P Canada Ltd, says COSIA will require new approaches for intellectual property management of environmental technology and the industry’s working relationship with research agencies, technology providers, regulators and other oil sands stakeholders.

“COSIA enables continuous innovation and the development of real environmental solutions. We have seen what can be achieved when we work together and our ideas and efforts are multiplied. For example, work done by the Oil Sands Tailings Consortium (OSTC) over the past year has already delivered technology that promises to dramatically cut the reclamation time for oil sands tailings. We want to build on these previous successes across our environmental priority areas and accelerate our environmental performance,” Gires said.

Companies participating in COSIA will contribute at varying levels to the alliance, based on their own areas of expertise. COSIA will rely on the input of scientists and engineers from within the ranks of the 12 member companies, as well as leading thinkers from government, academia and the wider public.

Shareholder companies participating in COSIA:

BP Canada Energy Company
Canadian Natural Resources Limited
Cenovus Energy Inc.
ConocoPhillips Canada Resources Corp.
Devon Canada Corporation
Imperial Oil
Nexen Inc.
Shell Canada Energy
Statoil Canada Ltd.
Suncor Energy Inc.
Teck Resources Limited
Total E&P Canada Ltd.

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