And then they would access the tool Chris developed to show the most current data related to production versus energy use throughout the operation.

Using his logic, if the average person weighs 80 kilograms and they thought this way every day, it would take less than a month to reach Syncrude’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emission targets for the next 10 years. “Obviously it is not that easy,” says Chris. “But the more people find small things and recover them early, the more they add up.”

As examples, Chris says that one gallon per minute of condensate recovered is equivalent to 90 kilograms of CO₂ emissions based on the heat. If you turn off 10 – 100 Watt light bulbs, that’s 88 kilograms per day of CO₂.

Chris, Senior Technical Specialist in Utilities, is talking about the GHG Emissions Tracking Tool he created and Syncrude has been applying since last April.

“The tool was initially developed to be in line with monthly corporate reporting on greenhouse gas emissions intensity,” says Chris. “But because it uses daily data inputs, we can use it to make decisions about energy use every day and influence a reduction in emissions in the moment.”

“The goal is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions through reliability improvements, energy reductions, and increased production,” says Sol Cifuentes, GHG Program Lead.

Production is a key word. When production rates are high in the Upgrader, it can produce up to 75 per cent of the total energy needed to produce heat for bitumen recovery. When production is low, the GHG Emissions Tracking Tool highlights specific opportunities to turn down energy demand to match production. Ultimately, we want to produce the most synthetic crude oil using the least amount of energy throughout the process of converting oil sand to oil.

At a glance, the tool shows teams what is happening with energy usage and areas that need a closer look. If an area is showing green or yellow, it’s okay. When it shows red, there is work to do. And the tool is evolving.

“Chris will be adding a power component to the GHG Emissions Tracking Tool that will highlight yellow or red when there are opportunities to make power with a lower carbon footprint depending on what is happening at site that day.”

Chris explains that the tool is designed to be a compass to help people determine what direction to take when it comes to production and energy. For example, when production rates are down, not as much energy is needed. “Sometimes production isn’t even close to matching the energy being generated,” he says. “So when production rates are reduced, the turn down capability, including the speed of turn down is important to reduce emissions. There has been a huge improvement in our turn down capability.”

_{Syncrude’s ability to turn down energy when the demand is low has helped reduce overall emissions per barrel. This chart shows production and emissions intensity from 2019 compared to 2020 with the trend being – on average – lower emissions intensity overall}

_{Sometimes little things create big results. Thanks to the GHG Emissions Tracking Tool, operators found opportunities to reduce the amount of heated water needed to match production in the third quarter versus the same time in 2019.}

It’s changing the way people think about the energy we use. Information is made available daily, and Chris reviews it with Operations on a weekly basis. It all contributes to a better understanding of energy use on site and what can be done to manage it while reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

“Giving people absolute numbers helps them understand what they need to do to manage energy,” says Chris. “When they ask, ‘What can I do today? How can I reduce CO2 emissions by 1,000 tonnes today?’ we give them numbers they can work with every day.”

There is more collaboration between business units as they learn about the tool, and their conversations support different ways to use less energy during production to move the plant towards higher efficiency.

Tracking production volumes for energy reduction opportunities, combined with an ongoing focus on reliability, promotes Syncrude’s goal of being more carbon efficient while lowering expenses related to greenhouse gases.

Learn more about our Climate Change Strategy.

Upon closer inspection, the foreman with North American Construction Group realized he had spotted something important.

“I do a lot of hunting and fishing and I figured it might be a bison based on the skull. It was sticking out of the material. We had a lot of rain at that time. I figured the rain would have washed away the material covering it,” says Sheldon.

Sheldon immediately alerted Syncrude’s mine operations, who sent out Geologist Patrick Dunbar to investigate the discovery while the North American crew taped off the area to protect what they found.

Patrick carefully documented the finding by taking photographs before speaking with Chris Jass, the curator of Quaternary (Ice Age) palaeontology at the Royal Alberta Museum about preserving the skull.

“We take the utmost care to preserve any fossils or artifacts found on our leases,” says Patrick, who joined Syncrude in 2017. “Syncrude has put protocols in place to ensure these finds are protected.”

“One of the biggest research questions for us is how did we go from an ice-impacted landscape where nothing lived in Alberta because of the presence of giant sheets of ice from 25,000 to 15,000 years ago to what you see today,” says Chris. “This skull doesn’t tell that story by itself but represents a piece of that puzzle. We also have not received a lot of fossils from northern Alberta because it is covered with the vegetation and the soils are fairly acidic, which can break down bones quickly. We don’t have a good Ice Age fossil record from northeastern Alberta so this is very exciting for us.”

Chris estimates the skull is up to 5,000 years old based on the size of the horn cores in the photos taken by Patrick. “Bison migrated to North America about 200,000 years ago based on evidence found in Yukon and Alaska. Prior to the last major growth of glacial ice starting 25,000 years ago, horses were more prevalent than bison,” Chris says. “When the glaciers receded ~15,000 years ago, bison populations just explode and it becomes that iconic symbol we associate with the western landscape.”

Chris will have a better idea of the skull’s age once it is transported down to the museum from Syncrude’s site, something that will take place when COVID-19 restrictions are eased. However, he praised the way Syncrude handled the discovery.

“We appreciate it when people and companies act responsibly. This is going to be an important part of the museum’s Ice Age paleontology collection.”

That’s something Sheldon appreciates. “I’m not going to lie. When I first saw it, I thought it would look great hanging from the wall in my garage,” he says. “The neatest thing that I’ve ever found. I’m proud to be able to help preserve an important piece of history.”

That’s why Syncrude has a long history of collaborating with leading researchers and scientists from universities and institutions across Canada.

Ecologist Carla Wytrykush is a member of the multi-disciplinary team that is turning a former oil sands mine into the industry’s first commercial demonstration of an End-Pit Lake.  Developed to reclaim mine tailings, this technology contains the tailings in an empty mine pit with water on top to create a lake. The water supports a variety of aquatic life including algae, zooplankton and insects. 

Carla’s team is responsible for monitoring the overall performance at Base Mine Lake—and it’s no small undertaking. 

‘To give you an idea of the scope of all that’s involved in ensuring the success of this project, on any given day we are tracking water quality, water chemistry, physics of the tailings, ecology, physical dynamics, microbial activity, gas flux from the lake, wave patterns and vegetation on the lake, and the list goes on.” 

By partnering with the best and brightest minds on the Base Mine Lake project, we continue to strive towards creating sustainable landscapes that meet our commitments to being a leader in responsible development in the oil sands.

This year alone, more than one million trees and shrubs were planted which led to reaching that record.

Despite the challenges the season presented with a global pandemic hampering work in various areas and industries, the program had to continue, says Syncrude’s vegetation specialist Eric Girard.

“It was tough to do this work during the pandemic, however safety has always been a top priority at Syncrude and we had the protocols in place to ensure everyone’s health and safety. While some activities were stood down to maintain health and safety protocols, tree planting activities were able to continue because physical distancing was not a challenge.”  

Tree planting began May 20 with 22 people working on the program, 16 of whom were tree planters and the rest support crews who supervised and transported trees to various spots located north of the Syncrude’s North Mine. Towards the end of the season, the tree planting crew grew to about 30 to ensure that the program was finished by June 21.

“As we enter July, the trees and shrubs should be actively growing or it may become challenging for them to come to life and survive. We need to give them a chance and the sooner we plant them, the better. The plants need time to get out of dormancy, grow roots and leaves, grow new buds, seal them, and be ready with reserves for the upcoming winter. They need time to go through the different phases of growth.”

Balsam Poplar, trembling aspen, white birch, jackpine and white spruce were among the species of trees planted this year while the shrubs consisted of green alder, river alder, red osier dogwood, rat root, Saskatoon, buffaloberry, honeysuckle, willows, roses, Labrador tea, bog birch, snowberry, pin cherries, lingonberry, twinflowers, crowberries, sedges, Low bush cranberries, blueberry and hazelnuts.

As in previous years, Little Smokey Forestry Services provided professional tree planters and the required support to make the 2020 program a success despite the unique season.  

This year the team successfully completed around 9,000 workforce hours safely.

Even though it is very rough terrain and the work is highly physical, the tree planters did a great job working safe”, says Pozzi, Production Day Supervisor for the Environmental and Fluid Transfer Team which is responsible for the safe operations and completion of the tree planting program.

As a daughter of a sailor, Lesley Warren always felt a close connection to water. But rather than following her father into the Royal Navy and exploring the briny deep, she followed her passion for water through scientific pursuits.

“My family was always linked to water because of my father, who was stationed throughout the world so we followed him. But water was always the thread,” says Lesley, who was born in England but grew up in several different ports of call. “Shortly after we emigrated to Canada when I was a teenager, I realized I could study water and wanted to pursue that. Water underpins human society.”

More than 30 years and two degrees later, Lesley is leading a team of scientists from the University of Toronto conducting critical research on Base Mine Lake, Syncrude’s demonstration project of its water-capping technology for fluid fine tailings.

Lesley, an applied scientist who combines geochemistry with molecular and experimental microbiology to identify the processes that affect water quality and reclamation outcomes. “There are geo-chemical processes influenced by invisible microorganisms occurring in these systems that influence how much oxygen exists in the water. Our research aims to identify these microbially linked processes that are driving both positive and negative outcomes, so Syncrude can be smart about designing water-capped tailings technology to promote the processes that help produce oxygen.”

Lesley and her team take water samples from different depths of Base Mine Lake throughout the year to further their understanding about those processes. “Microbes live under many more conditions than we can so we sample the entire depth of the water cap to capture all the possible microbial processes that may be occurring that can influence oxygen concentrations. During the winter, this means drilling through the ice to collect samples from the water beneath. We sample the water all year to capture any seasonal changes in biological activity so we can provide a robust baseline of important oxygen-influencing processes,” says Lesley, who holds the Claudette Mackay-Lassonde Chair in Mineral Engineering and serves as the director of the Lassonde Institute of Mining at the University of Toronto.

Lesley has worked on projects at Syncrude for more than 10 years after some of the company’s researchers heard her speak on how the organization could employ microbially integrated geochemical investigation as part of its strategy to develop sound, science-based reclamation. Lesley has come to appreciate the approach taken by Syncrude.

“It also is not afraid to go a little further afield to find the right solutions.”

Lesley has not always experienced that same welcoming attitude during her career.

“Any female professor in any of the hard sciences has likely faced those obstacles. When I started out, maybe five per cent of the professors in the hard sciences were female. In many cases, this number has not changed in the 20 years that I have been a professor. I was fortunate to have a couple of female role models in my career,” says Lesley, who completed her undergraduate degree and PhD at U of Toronto. “That’s changing in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics). I’ve certainly not experienced any barriers in the dozen or so years working at Syncrude, but that’s an organization that values inclusivity and diversity. That attitude comes straight from the top and reflects the culture of inclusivity that is embedded at Syncrude; an organization that is led currently by a female engineer.”

Lesley’s sentiments were echoed by two of her field researchers, who appreciate how much she and other female leaders in STEM have helped change the landscape for the next generation of female scientists.

“I wasn’t really aware how women were positioned in science while I was an undergrad,” says Tara Colenbrander Nelson, a water scientist who has studied and worked with Lesley since 2001. “Because I had Lesley as a mentor, I probably wasn’t as aware of some of the challenges as others in the field.”

Yunyun Yan, a PhD student who has just joined Lesley’s group this last year from China, agrees with her colleague. “The expectations for me are no different than for anybody else,” she says.

And it’s difficult having the best people when you don’t include half of the population.

“Industry partners who want to develop the smartest strategies for these grand challenges are not going to want to limit themselves,” Lesley says. “We need to do the best we can do to steward water. I’m glad to be a part of finding those solutions because water will always be a part of who I am.”

Main photo: Lesley Warren holds the Claudette Mackay-Lassonde Chair in Mineral Engineering and serves as the director of the Lassonde Institute of Mining at the University of Toronto