[BREAKING] Canada's Oil Patch Seeks Government Green Aid to Produce Cleaner Crude

WINNIPEG/TORONTO (Reuters) - Canada’s struggling oil patch is seeking government aid to clean up its impact on the environment after the industry cut spending on green initiatives to weather the COVID-19 downturn.

Canada, the world’s fourth-largest oil producer, pumps out the highest emissions per barrel among major oil nations, according to Rystad Energy. Most Canadian crude comes from hydrocarbon-soaked sands in the province of Alberta and extracting it comes at a high environmental cost.

In the past five years, international oil majors, banks and investment funds have shunned financing oil sands projects as dirty and expensive.

European oil majors, under governmental pressure, have embarked on a difficult transformation toward more renewables like wind and solar. Canada’s industry, on the other hand, wants to reduce emissions while still focusing on oil.

When fuel demand collapsed last spring during pandemic lockdowns, some Canadian oil producers cut spending on projects aimed at reducing emissions.

Now, two of Canada’s biggest producers are asking the federal government to pick up some clean-up costs by supporting major green initiatives. Any specific dollar requests have not been made public, and Ottawa has not said if it would consider such aid.

Suncor Energy is pushing for government investment in several projects, including a C$1.4 billion cogeneration project to replace boilers fired by petroleum coke with natural gas. The project would reduce Suncor’s emissions and displace some coal-fired power from Alberta’s grid.

Original article: https://ca.reuters.com/article...