Carbon dioxide emissions from oil sands production in Canada rose last year and are 36 percent higher than five years ago, according to a new oil industry analysis.

The Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers reported last week that total emissions of CO2 equivalent in the oil sands increased to 47.1 million tons in 2011. Those CO2 numbers are 1.7 percent higher than the prior year and up 16 percent from 2009.

"It is recognized that a shift to more energy-intensive production methods, such as oil sands and hydraulic fracturing to produce natural gas, as well as expanding "in-situ" oil sands production, means reducing [greenhouse gas] emissions intensity will continue to be a challenge," said the progress report of the association, which represents Canada's oil and gas producers.

The oil sands constitute 0.16 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions and 6.9 percent of Canada's total emissions, the association said. The greenhouse gas intensity of the oil sands per unit of produced energy has declined every year since 2007, even as production increased 37 percent over the same time frame, according to the group's data.

In-situ oil sands production involves burning natural gas to heat steam for loosening bitumen, or petroleum, out of deep sand formations in Alberta. The industry increasingly is turning to this production, considering that most Albertan oil reserves are too deep to extract through traditional mining (ClimateWire, Dec. 16, 2010).

The in-situ process is more carbon intensive than mining because of its reliance on natural gas.

Some groups project that oil sands greenhouse gas emissions could increase by more than 100 percent over 2010 levels by 2020 if the industry's production grows as expected.

Researching solutions

"Oilsands are the fasting growing source of greenhouse gas emissions in Canada. Alberta's greenhouse gas regulations do not result in meaningful reductions in emissions from oil sands operations," said a briefing paper this month from the Pembina Institute, an environmental think tank.

Supporters of the oil sands have long said the industry's overall carbon footprint is low in comparison with many other fossil fuel industries.

In its report, the petroleum association noted ongoing research from the Canada's Oil Sands Innovation Alliance, a coalition of oil companies that signed an agreement in February to research greenhouse gas reduction and other environmental issues.

It also noted that the industry's carbon footprint reaches beyond the oil sands. When conventional oil and gas is considered along with oil sands, the industry's total greenhouse gas emissions "remained flat" in 2011 while production grew by 1 percent, the association said.

Members of the industry are testing solvents that could be used instead of steam to extract bitumen to slash emissions. They also are moving forward with two projects funded by the Alberta and national governments involving the capture and storage of carbon dioxide from oil sands facilities.

Royal Dutch Shell's Quest project -- which would involve the capture of carbon dioxide from an oil sands upgrader -- commenced construction earlier this year. Last month, North West Redwater Partnership announced its board of directors approved construction of a bitumen refinery that would capture carbon dioxide for later use in enhanced oil recovery.

Yet Pembina said in the briefing note that carbon capture technology is too expensive to be implemented at levels necessary in the oil sands to reduce emissions on a wide scale.

The oil footprint of the Canadian oil sands has been a focal point in environmental protests in the United States against TransCanada's Keystone XL, a proposed pipeline that would stretch from Canada to Nebraska -- where it could be linked with another project being built to the Gulf Coast.

NASA scientist James Hansen -- who was arrested last year at the White House during a pipeline protest -- has said growing production in the oil sands combined with burning of other fossil fuels would be "game over" for the planet (ClimateWire, July 25, 2011).