Original ArticleCanada's oil sands: The mark of a new ‘oil age’ or a potential threat to Arctic security?
Introduction
In 1999, the UK-based magazine, The Economist, claimed that the world was “drowning in oil” and was likely to remain so. Fast forward 15 years, however, and its March 2014 headline tells a very different story. It reads: “the North Sea – running on fumes”. This headline, like many others appearing over the last decade, suggest another, more troubling reality, one where rather than being awash with oil, many conventional oil supplies are in decline and oil scarcity in many parts of the world is becoming a very real scenario. This situation has increased concerns about long-term energy security globally and has prompted many nation states, particularly those with Arctic coastal boundaries, to start exploring options in this region for both onshore and off shore development of oil and gas reserves. This increased focus has also included plans for new and as yet untested transportation routes through Arctic waters to bring any future exploitation to market.
While the recent exploration operations of energy companies such as Royal Dutch Shell off the northern coast of Alaska in the Beaufort and Chukchi seas are well known, less well-known are the various plans and debates surrounding the extraction and transportation of Alberta's oil sands (Zalik, 2010, Sherval, 2013, Veltmeyer and Bowles, 2014). This paper therefore has two aims. The first is to provide a theoretical understanding of the oil sands industry in Canada by initially situating the research in the literature on scarcity. From here, the paper seeks to show how by framing the development of oil sands through these means, the Government of Canada has also been able to translate the idea of energy insecurity into a discussion about Arctic sovereignty and national development.
The second aim of the paper is to provide a brief analysis of the diverse debates associated with this unique and highly controversial form of extraction. By examining the central arguments of opposition groups, the government and industry bodies, the paper seeks to highlight the different ways through which arguments for and against the extraction and transportation of this resource are being framed. Likewise, through an evaluation of two of the pipeline options the Government of Canada is considering for transportation of the resource, as well as an appraisal of the amount of greenhouse gas emissions that could be released by these forms of delivery, it is hoped that a more coherent approach to this issue might be offered. Currently, most debates focus on the binary between project approval or lost economic opportunity rather than broadening the debate to include the long-term implications of policy decisions concerning the associated issues of increased environmental risk, community concerns and the ongoing security of Arctic spaces more generally (Palen et al., 2014, Shum, 2013).
The paper concludes on a cautionary note, suggesting that once the lines between energy security and national sovereignty are blurred, the greater the need for strict environmental standards to be in place. With the composition and geography of tomorrow's oil being dramatically different to the ‘black gold’ of the past, and given that the high Arctic is being visualised as the next hydrocarbon frontier, how its resources and fragile ecosystems are managed will essentially determine the future of the region. Whether it is merely to serve as a stop-gap to final depletion or as a testament to careful planning, human ingenuity and long-term balanced decision making fundamentally rests upon an enduring will to lead judiciously and the desire for an equitable collective energy future.
Section snippets
Framing the debate
Energy security is influenced by a number of factors, including ongoing supply, appropriate regulation, investment, and, in the modern era, constantly evolving technology and political resolve. In many nation states, there has been a blurring of the lines between the economic concerns of ensuring constant energy supply and the political concerns of national defence. This situation, as Cuita (2010:124) suggests, brings energy into the security domain and as such, “it is likely to affect the
Alberta's oil sands: when ‘oils ain’t oils’
In the mid-1990s, when the rest of the globe was beginning to investigate the possibility of exploitation of shale oil, gas and coal bed methane, Canada was beginning to take advantage of the huge reserves of carbon-saturated energy found in its province of Alberta. Oil sands, also known as ‘tar sands’ because they consist of bitumen mixed with sand (like asphalt), represent, according to critics, “a true symbol of peak oil” (Nikiforuk, 2010:8) while for others, they signify capturing the
Conclusion
While Canada's plans to make its Arctic spaces ‘productive’ may at present be more of an ideal than a reality, the presence of abundant resources, such as Alberta's oil sands, present an unprecedented opportunity to achieve many of the Harper government's long-term goals. By seriously contemplating new plans such as the Arctic Energy Gateway, the federal government could also achieve many of the objectives its Northern Strategy seeks to address by not only making provinces such as the remote
Acknowledgements
The author would like to thank Gavin Hilson for his support and advice on this paper. Also, Olivier Rey-Lescure for his technical assistance with the mapping for this paper as well as Project Syndicate, TransCanada, Alberta's Energy Regulator, Alberta's Geological Survey, and Inside Climate News for permission to republish their material. InsideClimate News is a non-profit, non-partisan news organisation that covers energy and climate change – plus the territory in between where law, policy and
References (93)
Peak oil: the four stages of a new idea
Energy
(2009)- et al.
Less is more: spectres of scarcity and the politics of resource access in the upstream oil sector
Geoforum
(2010) At the base of Hubbert's peak: grounding the debate on petroleum scarcity
Geoforum
(2010)Oil in parallax: scarcity, markets, and the financialization of accumulation
Geoforum
(2010)- et al.
Global oil peaking: responding to the case for ‘abundant supplies of oil’
Energy
(2008) Social construction and physical inhalation of the Keystone XL pipeline: lessons from international relations theory
Energy Policy
(2013)- et al.
Extractivist resistance: the case of the Enbridge oil pipeline in Northern British Columbia
Extr. Ind. Soc.
(2014) Oil ‘futures’: Shell's Scenarios and the social constitution of the global oil market
Geoforum
(2010)Alberta's Oil Sands Industry – Quarterly Update. Fall Report
(2014)Alberta's Energy Reserves 2013 and Supply/Demand Outlook 2014–2023. Report ST98
(2014, May)
Alberta's Oil Sands Map
Fossil Energy_Alaska Oil History
Ethical oil: the case for Canada's oil sands
Environ. Commun.
Liquid Modernity
EPA's Oil Spill Program
With Keystone XL Delay, Alberta Looks North. Cryopolitics – Arctic News & Analysis
Bound by chains of carbon: ecological–economic geographies of globalization
Ann. Assoc. Am. Geogr.
Circum-Arctic Resource Appraisal: Estimates of Undiscovered Oil and Gas North of the Arctic Circle
How the price of oil could fall to just $20 a barrel
Business Insider
Resource triumphalism: postindustrial narratives of primary commodity production
Environ. Plan. A
The Magnetic North
The Globe and Mail
Fuel for thought: the economic benefits of oil sands investment for Canada's regions
Forecasting Global Oil Supply 2000–2050. Newsletter HC#2002/3-1-1
Canada's Oil Sands – The Emergence of the Industry
Castrol Edge
Myth versus reality in Stephen Harper's northern strategy
The Globe and Mail
The “Dirty Oil” Card and Canadian Foreign Policy
Conceptual notes on energy security: total or banal security?
Secur. Dialogue
Canada formally abandons Kyoto Protocol on climate change
The Globe and Mail
Beyond Oil – The View from Hubbert's Peak
The rhetoric and reality of nature protection: toward a new discourse
Washington Lee Legal Rev.
The future of oil
The Guardian
The Future History of the Arctic
Canada's Emissions Trends
Impact of the Keystone XL pipeline on global oil markets and greenhouse gas emissions
Nat. Clim. Change
Twenty Year Trend Analysis of Oil Spills in EPA Jurisdiction
Progress towards the digital oil field: evolution or revolution?
World Energy
Out of Gas – The End of the Age of Oil
Understanding Unconventional Oil. The Carnegie Papers – Energy and Climate
Canada's Northern Strategy – Our North, Our Heritage, Our Future
PM Announces Launch of the National Research Council Arctic Program
Canada's Northern Strategy
Tar Sands/Oil Sands. The Oil Drum: Net Energy – Unconventional Oil
Comparative pipeline politics: oil sands pipeline controversies in Canada and the United States
The Tar-Sands Disaster
The New York Times
Europe softens stance on Canada's oil sands as relations with Russia sour
Financial Post
Cited by (7)
Understanding indigenous strategic pragmatism: Métis engagement with extractive industry developments in the Canadian North
2017, Extractive Industries and SocietyCitation Excerpt :The governance of relationships between extractive industries and indigenous people is characterized by the comprehensive delegation of power from state institutions to industry (Wanvik, 2016; Fidler, 2010; Lawrence and Macklem, 2000; Caine and Krogman, 2010; Harvey and Bice, 2014; Prno and Scott Slocombe, 2012; O’Faircheallaigh, 2007; Arena et al., 2015; Jenkins and Yakovleva, 2006). For decades, the asymmetrical context of the Canadian North, with its economically disadvantaged rural indigenous communities and explosive economic growth in urban cores (fuelled by ever-expanding extractive industries), has been a concern for social scientists from all disciplines (Angell and Parkins, 2011; Sherval, 2015; LeClerc and Keeling, 2015; Veltmeyer and Bowles, 2014; Young, 2016). Scholarship on indigenous responses to extraction industries in the Canadian North can be described as a continuum with two distinct phases: the community impact period (1970–1995), which was marked by emphases on social pathologies and social disruption, the politics of assimilation, the sociology of disturbance and the anthropology of acculturation (see for example Justus and Simonetta, 1979; Erikson, 1976; Waldrum, 1988); and the community continuity period (1996 to present), which underscored the growing political empowerment of indigenous communities through cultural resistance (Barker, 2015), political inclusion in participatory governance processes (Fidler, 2010; Lawrence and Macklem, 2000; Gibson and Klinck, 2005; Harvey and Bice, 2014; O’Faircheallaigh, 1999, 2007, 2010a, 2010b), and attention to traditional knowledge in aboriginal communities (Usher, 2000).
Sustainability Considerations for the Future Bioeconomy
2016, Developing the Global Bioeconomy: Technical, Market, and Environmental Lessons from BioenergyGovernance transformed into Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR): New governance innovations in the Canadian oil sands
2016, Extractive Industries and SocietyCitation Excerpt :Historically, the governance structure of Canada’s extractive hot zones has been dominated by two groups of actors, namely governments at all levels and industry (Hoberg and Phillips, 2011). Huge efforts have been invested by these two sectors in developing a previously uneconomic energy commodity (bitumen) into a highly profitable enterprise, resulting in a thriving industrial venture (Sherval, 2015). However, this has not come without cost; bitumen extraction has reinforced past grievances among local Aboriginal communities, which have once again being deprived of their hard-earned access to traditional territories (Black et al., 2014; Huseman and Short, 2012; Jamasmie, 2014).
Preliminary bulk characterization of Picacho tar sands, Pesca municipality (Boyacá, Colombia)
2018, Boletin de GeologiaValue, Identity and Place: unearthing the emotional geographies of the extractive sector
2017, Australian Geographer