Fourth annual progress report for Canada's Climate Change Voluntary Challenge and Registry program

Examples of how greenhouse gas issues are being integrated into management processes within Suncor Energy Inc. are described in this fourth annual progress report to the Climate Change Voluntary Challenge and Registry Program. The report covers Suncor's three operating businesses - oil sands and conventional oil exploration and production in Western Canada, and refining and marketing operation in Ontario. Oil sands was the largest source of greenhouse emissions, accounting for 2/3 of the total. Carbon dioxide emissions accounted for 93 per cent of total emissions. This report addresses three areas of change: one of these is Project Millennium in the oil sands division, which is a major expansion project planned for efficiency improvements. As a result of the project, total greenhouse gas emissions will increase to 9.3 million tonnes by the year 2002, in terms of operating efficiency, emissions per unit of production will continue to decline from 0.54 tonnes ECO2 in 1990 to 0.44 tonnes ECO2 in 2002, a reduction of 18 per cent. Another change is that target reductions in the Kyoto Protocol will supersede informal Canadian commitments for the year 2000, if the protocol is ratified. Thirdly, Suncor's greenhouse gas emission forecast has been extended to the year 2002 to demonstrate the impact of Project Millennium and to clarify the changes during the transition period relative to previous forecasts. New initiatives to be undertaken during 1998-2002 include heat recovery in new upgrader units, recycling diluent used in bitumen extraction without cooling, recovery of gas presently going to the flare system, installation of a 200,000 barrel hot water surge tank, addition of a third turbogenerator, and various projects to generate more electrical power internally. tabs., figs