• It. I •, IOL-050 fl - 55 A Preliminary Inventory of Greenhouse Gas Emissions Esso Resources Canada Ltd. Volume 2 May 1991 By: L F Mannix VOLUME 1 PREAMBLE EXECUTIVE SUMMARY TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF TABLES LIST OF FIGURES ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS INTRODUCTION Background Other METHODOLOGY Scope Inventory Reporting Structure Accuracy Data Gathering CO2 Equivalent Factors DISCUSSION OF RESULTS Overall Results (Inventory) Results by Production Sector General Natural Gas Production Sector Oil Production Sector Heavy Oil Production Sector Crude Bitumen Production Sector Oil Sands Mining Sector Coal Production Sector Results by Geographic Area Comparisons to Other Inventories Confidence Limits Reduction Opportunities and Costs General Overall Reduction Potential Potential Reduction Costs Summary of Reduction Potential and Costs CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS GLOSSARY OF TERMS 1 2 8 10 11 12 13 13 14 15 15 16 19 19 20 21 21 23 23 25 26 27 28 29 29 30 31 32 33 33 33 35 36 38 40 APPENDIX 1Results by Gas Type and Equipment Type CO2 Methane voe NOx N20 CFC APP ENDIX 2 (Deta iled Methodology) Met hodology All Secto rs Combustion CO2 Combustion CH4 Combustion VOC Combustion NOx Combustion N20 Surface Facility Equipment Leaks Leaks from Surface Casing Well Servicing Characterization of Emissions Natural Gas Sector Oil Sector Heavy Oil Sector Crude Bitumen Sector Oil Sands Mining Sector Coal Sector Other Data Input Sheet VOLUME 2 APPENDIX 3 (Summary of Site Specific Data and Assumptions) Introduction Summary Results by Division and Area . Site Specific Assumptions and Calculations Summary of Social Reduction Cost Data Sample Social Cost of Service Calculation VOLUME 3 APPENDIX 4 (Detailed Area specific Data) 41 41 41 42 43 44 44 44 45 45 45 46 46 46 48 48 53 54 55 58 60 62 62 63 63 64 64 Imperial Oil 0 1' TI e Tr.rns}t ringrecopered fuel11apors at Imperials FmcbAt1e1111e NVIRONMENT . I mperial Oil Limited is committed to environmen- - Integrate environmental considerations in busi- tal protection and the broader integration of envi- ness planning , facilities and product design , operating ronmental and economic priorities , in all aspects practices and training programs. of its bminess. - Work with indu stry associations , government .1,stribution terminalin northToronto i agencies and public groups to determine environmental priorities and foster timely developm ent of appr?- IMPERJALSPOLLCYIS ;TO: - Responsibly manage all aspects of its business to ensure that recognized environmental standards priate 1-awsand regulations, providing advic<:_on the impacts of such measures on the environment , costs. and supply. and legal requirements are met. - Adopt company standards that go beyond legal requirements where benefits to society justify the costs . - Conduct understanding and support research to improv e of the impact of its business on the hazards associated environment , improve methods of environmental pro- with company activities are ident~fied , assessed and tection and enhance its capability to make operations managed. and products compatibl e with the environment. - Ensure that environmental - Manage its business with the goal of preventing - Communicate with employees , customers, the accidents and -design , operate and maintain facilities public and governments to this end . environmentai - Respond quickly and effectively to incidents resulting from its operations , cooperating with indus- try organizations and authorized government agencies. - Emphasize individual require everyone th'roughout adhere to clearly-defined responsibility the organization environmental and in a timely fashion on the aspects of the company 's operations and products . - Undertake appropriate reviews, evaluations and performance measuremenJ:s of its operations to ·ensure compliance with this environmental policy. to practices and procedures. 5 Protecting ,D and at about 470 retail outlets served by them. The uring the past 20 years, ambient air quality in Canada has improved considerably, with sub- company stantial progress made in reducing concen- ~ystems, which capture gasoline vapors that would has spent $9 million on these recovery trations of sulphur dioxide, lead, carbon monoxide and . otherwise enter the atmosphere suspended particles. This improvement has been well J 989, the company emissions of nitrogen compiled do remain. In an inventory of its oxides (NOx ) and volatile organic compounds (VOCs), which are precursors of ground-level ozone. In a 1991 publication quality, Imperial indicated that ground-Jevel As well, the company reduced-emission documented in.recent government publications. Key air quality issues, however, transferred. on air ozone, and southern is producing gasolines for the Vancouver area Ontario during the summer months, addressed in national and international that needed the most atte~tion of greenhouse are being arenas. As a Imperial compiled an inventory gas ~missions from its operations and has been tracki~g sulphur dioxide (S02 ) emissions for urban areas. The operat ions of petroleum several years. More recently, the company and other their products do contribute. the National Pollutant Release Inventory. Under this and petrochemical facilities a~e not considered to be the, major sourc~ of · industry participants have assisted the federal governOx and VOC emissions although some uses for ment in developing a new reporting framework, called ot the.?e emissions in Canada have been attributed the use of transportation Imperial has been taking f,uels. Nevertheless steps to reduce emissions of these air contaminants, to program, in 1994 ind _ustries will begin reporting releases of 178 substances info the environment. its own sometimes well ahead of regulation. To improve air quality in areas prone to urban smog, gasoline vapor-recovery systems have been put in place at lmperial's major petroleum products distri- bution terminals in Vancouver, Toronto artd Hamilton 45 40 35 ' 20 15 10 valuable first step in understandi -ng how the company can best contribute, For example, ab·out half 50 25 Imperial recognizes that other air quality issues such as greenhouse gases and acid rain - 55 30 when local smog levels are at their highest . a contributor to urban smog, was the air contaminant in some Canadian while fuel is being Air Emissions S11lph11r d 1ox1d.e ( SO 2) Laboratory technicians collect exha_ust emissions for analysisat theEsso ResearchCentrein Sarnia,Ont. 0 1988 II Oil and gas production J992 1991 (tho11sands of to11nrs1 II Refining /J r o t e , l n C} .iJ AND ! reventing operational incidents that result in spills of our process materials or products is one of the basic pri'nciples driving our everyday business. We are also concerned with many other aspects of responsible land management. Acr~ss Canada, Imperial has about 2,700 nonproducing oil and gas wells and about 1,000 surplus retail sites. Taking these out of service and, where necessary, cleaning up the soil (remediating) for other uses is a continuing challenge . In recent years, the company has remediated more than 300 petroleum marketing and retail sites at a cost of about $100 million. Also, during 1992, about 250 P Remediation of non-operating In addition, since 1986 , as part of ongoing operations, the company has either replaced or upgraded 1,500 tan.ks at retail outlets , refineries and other facilities , at a cost of about$ lJ)O million. Given the significant expense of restorin g or decommissioning sites , company researchers are working to develop new technologies to completethis work more cost-effe'ctively. Two new portable siteremediation systems hold great promise . One uses catalytic conversi on or heat to destroy petroleum vapors aher they have been removed from the soil in a separate process called vapor extraction. sites Imperial participated in the development and testing of this technology. • Expenditure s 150 The other system treats contaminated ground water in a process that uses hydrogen peroxide and 125 ultraviolet light to destroy re~dual petroleum. 100 Imperial has started two soil recycling operations in the province of Quebec, that involve the digesting 75 50 of petroleum and nutrients. 25 .... 0 1990 (accumulattd surplus · oil and gas wells were safely shut down and capped at a cost of about $5 million . millio"s of dollars) 1991 by a mixture of bacteria , oxygen In addition, a new soil-washing technolog y developed by resources, refining and research 1992 personnel has been successfully tested on indusmal properties contaminated b.ypetroleum . 10 / Protecting .M ' ATER iJ . a'n{ co~pany operations use fr~sh sur_face cont inue s to imp rove the qualit y of effluent water resulting fr o m p roduction , ref in i.ng and other wa ter from rivers and lakes tn various processes , such as generating steam . manufacturin treatment g p rocesses b y u pgrading water method s, b y controllin g co ntaminants at Mos t of the water is then treated and returned to the local watershed or reused in the processes themselves . ·source and by imp rov in g detection and monitoring systems . For example , at the company 's heavy-oil production In Ontario , the qual ity of water effluent at the facility near Cold Lake, Alta. steam is injected to soften bitumen and help bring it tb . the surfac ,e·. Treating and 'i:eusing the water recovered with the bitumen means 90 percent of it can be recycled to steam generators. This greatly reduces the amount of . fresh water required. Over the past 30 years, Imperial has installed advanced ' numerous water effluent operations, treatment and today f~cilities at the company Nanticoke refinery and at th e Sarnia chemical plant was rated th~ best in thei r respective industries by the provincial environment m inist ry in a 1992 report on industrial. efffue~ts. . During the past decade th e compan y has spent $46 million at its opetations in Samia to upgrade water tr-eatment methods , sewer •sy stem s, dockin g facilities and underground I pipelines .