Cenovus joins producers targeting net-zero emissions

energy

C A L G A RY • Cenovus Energy Inc. joined some of its oilsands peers in setting a goal of reaching net- zero emissions from its operations, part of a push to improve the industry’s reputation and win over environmentally minded investors.

Cenovus is aiming to achieve the net- zero feat by 2050, and in a statement released Thursday it also set targets of reducing its emissions per barrel of oil produced by 30 per cent by 2030 and keeping its absolute emissions flat in that time frame. Both of those targets include direct emissions from its own operations, as well as the indirect emissions from the generation of energy that it uses at its facilities.

The companies t hat produce crude from Canada’s oilsands, the world’s third- largest oil reserve, have been trying to revamp their public image as ecological offenders as investors increasingly focus on firms’ environmental, social and governance performance. That reputation has led to fierce opposition and delays to pipelines that export oilsands crude, limiting the companies’ ability to boost production.

Cenovus peers Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. and MEG Energy Corp. have both set long- term, “aspirational” targets of achieving net-zero emissions from their oilsands operations.

Putting those goals within reach are advances in technologies like carbon capture and sequestration, as well as increased used of solvents — rather than energy-intensive steam — for oil extraction, said Al Reid, Cenovus’s executive vice-president in charge of stakeholder engagement.

“On GHG emissions, we’ll need more of some of the things that we’re already doing, but we’re also going to have to push ourselves,” Reid said in an interview. “When you start talking about that longer- term, net- zero emissions target, we’ll need technologies that we know exist today, that we know can work today, but aren’t economic today.”