Performance overview: Environmental performance

Protect Tomorrow. Today.

Imperial Oil is committed to operating in a way that protects the environment and takes into account the economic and social needs of the communities where we operate. Our goal is to achieve environmental excellence in each of our businesses to Protect Tomorrow. Today.

What we said in 2009

Air

  • Continue to invest in emission controls to operations and fuel reformulation to reduce air emissions that affect regional air quality

Water

  • Improve freshwater use efficiency at Cold Lake through the Nabiye expansion
  • Reduce freshwater use at Cold Lake as a result of Imperial's commitment to progress projects that, if successful, will reduce freshwater consumption up to 30 percent by 2015
  • Identify and implement improvements in fresh water management programs at our refineries

Spills

  • Continue to leverage our successful behaviour-based safety systems, such as Loss Prevention System (LPS)TM, to increase our awareness of and reduce tolerance to environmental risks
  • Further training across our manufacturing sites in LPSTM and Essentials of Environmental Excellence (EEE)
  • Continue to expand safe operations training for process leaders
  • Roll out an Operator Care awareness program across conventional operations to support spill prevention
  • Continue to incorporate spill prevention training into site orientation for all workers and contractors and include spill performance and stewardship into contractor reviews

Land

  • Invest in ongoing research of advanced land reclamation technologies.
  • Identify opportunities to reduce our land footprint in the Upstream business

What we did in 2010

Air

  • Received regulatory approvals for the Cold Lake Nabiye expansion to install a sulphur recovery unit to decrease SO2 emissions and add cogeneration capacity
  • Started up additional emissions controls to reduce SO2 emissions at Sarnia and NOX emissions at Dartmouth refineries
  • Achieved successful full first year of operation of continuous emissions monitoring systems to measure NOX and SO2 at emissions at Sarnia and Nanticoke refineries.
  • Continued use of optical imaging camera technology to better detect and reduce fugitive emissions at our refineries and chemical plants

Water

  • Implemented conservation initiatives aimed at reducing freshwater use at Cold Lake by up to 30 percent
  • Completed engineering review to identify additional opportunities to minimize fresh water use and consumption and implement related best practises at manufacturing sites.
  • Worked with industry to develop recommendations to the Alberta government on water withdrawals from the Athabasca River, including the reduction of withdrawals during low-flow periods
  • Received conditional regulatory approval on a tailings management plan for the Kearl oil sands project
  • Conducted successful pilot on tailings management at the Natural Resources Canada’s CANMET research centre in Devon, Alberta

Spills

  • Introduced an Operator Care awareness program across conventional operations to drive spill prevention
  • Continued to incorporate additional spill prevention training into site orientation for workers and contractors and included spill performance and stewardship into contractor reviews
  • Carried out extensive analysis of spills in Upstream business looking for common causes and opportunities for improvement
  • Continued a multi-year program at our Sarnia site to install hold-and-treat systems to prevent release to St. Clair River
  • Furthered development of facility improvement project for Strathcona refinery storm water handling for start up in 2012.
  • Continued a program to upgrade underground petroleum storage tank and line systems at retail service stations to further reduce the risk of spills

Land

  • Received regulatory approval for our plans for the Cold Lake Nabiye expansion to reduce the surface footprint of new drilling pads by 40 percent
  • Developed design and operating strategies to reduce the size of the land required to set up and drill wells on our lease in the Horn River Basin in northeastern British Columbia

Biodiversity

  • Completed the first of three fish habitat “compensation” lakes at the Kearl oil sands site to replace aquatic habitat and improve water flow
  • Received certification from the Wildlife Habitat Council for Cold Lake’s Wildlife at Work program – the first-ever Upstream oil and gas site to be so recognized in Canada
  • Expanded partnership with Ducks Unlimited Canada with a four-year $720,000 project focused on wetland inventory and research

Overall

  • Invested $708 million in environmental and capital expenditures in 2010, spent primarily on emissions reductions on company-owned facilities and Syncrude, remediation of idled facilities and operations, as well as on protection of freshwater near Imperial facilities.

What we plan to do

Air

  • Continue to invest in emission controls to operations and fuel reformulation to reduce air emissions that affect regional air quality

Water

  • Further identify and implement improvements in water use and conservation programs at our refineries
  • Continue to focus on minimizing freshwater use in our upstream operations

Spills

  • Continue focus on spill prevention training

Land

  • Invest in ongoing research on advanced land reclamation technology, including oil sands tailings management