Satellite data sets off oilsands alarms
OTTAWA — Satellite imagery used by the federal government to review a major bitumen leak last year in Alberta has found the project’s steam-based extraction caused “measurable levels of ground deformation in the area of the leak” at a rate 10 times faster than other oilsands operations.
Satellite observations are sparking new questions about the incident at a Canadian Natural Resources Limited (CNRL) operation in northeast Alberta and the safety of bitumen extraction.
It’s also sounding alarm bells for the Cold Lake First Nations, who are worried oilsands operations in the area are contaminating local groundwater and damaging their traditional lands.
Briefing materials prepared for the deputy minister of Natural Resources Canada, and obtained by Postmedia News under access-to-information legislation, show the federal government used satellite imagery to study the extent of ground deformation near a major bitumen leak in June 2013 at CNRL’s Primrose operation approximately 45 kilometres northwest of Cold Lake.
The CNRL project is a thermal in situ operation that sees high-pressure steam injected into the ground down a wellbore to allow the bitumen to be pumped to the surface.
After the bitumen emulsion leak was reported by the Alberta Energy Regulator on June 24, 2013, the Canada Centre for Mapping and Earth Observation assessed the bitumen leak and discovered subsidence and uplift of the land over several years.
“Results obtained using imagery from Canada’s RADARSAT-2 (satellite) indicate that steam-based extraction caused measurable levels of ground deformation in the area of the leak, within the 2009-2013 period,” say September 2013 briefing notes prepared for NRCan’s deputy minister, who reports to federal Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver.
“Preliminary analysis also shows that the rate of ground deformation is approximately 10 times faster than changes observed by CCMEO in the Fort McMurray area, which uses the lower-pressure steam-assisted gravity drainage (SAGD) method,” say the briefing notes.
“While the deformation rates observed here are high relative to the SAGD steam-based operations, we cannot at this point indicate that these are atypical of this process in this region and/or are related to the bitumen leak.”
More than one million litres of bitumen has seeped to the surface from the major leak.
There have been at least three other separate, much smaller, leaks to the surface reported at different locations in CNRL’s Primrose operations.
The Alberta Energy Regulator, which was informed of the satellite data and associated findings last fall, is still conducting its investigation into the major leak.
CNRL has since been ordered to halt its steaming operations at the site of the leaks.
The company blames the major leak on a well failure and is spending $40 million to clean it up. It was ordered to drain a small lake on the Cold Lake Air Weapons Range to find a way to contain bitumen that was seeping into the water.
The Alberta Energy Regulator, however, said earlier this month it doesn’t necessarily share CNRL’s view that a well failure is solely to blame, although its investigation continues.
Cold Lake First Nations Coun. Sally Scanie said council members have done a flyover of the major leak but have not been allowed on the land to see it up-close. They remain worried the oilsands operations could be contaminating their groundwater, and irrevocably damaging the land and future hunting.
A spokesperson for CNRL said the cyclic steam stimulation extraction technique has been used in the Cold Lake area for more than 30 years, with the surface deformation having been measured since the 1980s and satellite data used since the 1990s.
The company is undertaking a comprehensive review to determine the cause of the bitumen flowing to the surface, she said.
Darin Barter, spokesman for the Alberta Energy Regulator, said it’s “premature” to discuss the AER’s assessments of the data because the investigation continues. He notes, though, the AER has not deemed the incident “over.”