Energy firms ramp up research

Sector climbs corporate rankings

Alberta’s energy companies are outpacing the rest of corporate Canada when it comes to ramping up investment in research and development.

Research Infosource — a division of consultant company The Impact Group — released its annual ranking of the country’s top 100 corporate R&D spenders on Tuesday.

The list includes 13 Alberta companies that together spent a total of $824.8 million on research in 2011, an increase of 33.4 per cent from 2010.

Nationwide, Canadian companies increased their research and development spending just 6.1 per cent in 2011.

While companies headquartered in Eastern Canada, such as Research In Motion and Bombardier, are still the heaviest hitters when it comes to investments in new technology, Alberta companies — particularly those with a presence in the oilsands — are rapidly climbing the ranks.

“Usually we look for large gains in the telecom sector, the IT sector.

Results for the natural resource sector tend to be more subdued,” said Research Infosource CEO Ron Freedman.

“But in Ontario and Quebec, the numbers are underperforming the national trend, and in Alberta this year they were substantially overperforming ... It implies there’s something significant going on here.”

Many energy companies saw double-digit percentage growth in research and development spending in 2011. Cenovus Energy Inc. ranked 11th nationwide, devoting $200 million to research in 2011 compared to $135 million in 2010, an increase of 48.1 per cent.

A pack of other energy companies — Imperial Oil Limited, Syncrude Canada Ltd., Suncor Energy Inc., Trican Well Service Ltd., Total E&P Canada Ltd., and Nexen Inc. — all posted double-digit growth and made it into the top 100 list.

Pius Rolheiser, spokesman for Imperial Oil — which invested $163 million in R&D in 2011 and is ranked 14th overall — said Imperial has always been committed to technology development.

However, 2011 was an especially big year for the company, with its $100-million investment into a pilot project aimed at eliminating the need for steam to mobilize bitumen deposits at its Cold Lake operating facility.

Rolheiser said the project, like many others Imperial is working on, has the potential to both improve the economic viability of oilsands production while at the same time reducing its environmental impact.

“Research and technology is to oilsands what exploration is to the conventional oil business.”

Trican Well Service, which ranked 54th overall, saw an 86 percentage point leap in R&D spending in 2011. CEO Dale Dusterhoft said the company — which already had one research centre in Calgary — opened additional research facilities in Houston and Moscow in 2011.

Dusterhoft said much of Trican’s recent research efforts have gone into the development of well stimulation fluids that can meet drinking water standards. He said if R&D investments are increasing in the energy sector, it’s likely because the whole area of unconventional extraction is still so new.

“It’s not like we’ve figured it all out — we’re still trying to improve the process. So there’s a lot of opportunity for all of us to come up with new ideas and better ways of doing it,” Dusterhoft said.

One Calgary-based company that cracked the top 100 list and isn’t part of the energysectorwas SMART Technologies Inc. The company, which designs technological tools for the classroom and boardroom, spent $52.4 million on research in 2011, a 51.7 per cent increase from 2010, and was ranked 44th overall.