Mayor Bob Himbeault attended a discussion session in Assiniboia on June 8 on pipelines and the oil sector with Mark Scholz, president of the Canadian Association of Oilwell Drilling Contractors and Oil Respect spokesperson. Scholz and representatives from CAODC and Oil Respect presented the oil industry’s perspective on Canada’s oil and gas industry.
According to Scholz, the industry is often misrepresented in the media and popular culture, and he was hoping that some of the facts and economic data about their industry become part of the public conversation.
Oil Respect is a campaign launched this spring to empower regular Canadians to voice support for the Canadian oil and gas industry. The campaign also intends to lobby the federal and provincial governments to support Canadian oil and gas development and transportation via pipelines, both across Canada and for export to new markets abroad. Canada’s oil and gas sector has been in a deep slump for a couple of years. It lost $60 billion in revenue in 2015. The sector was hit hard by war in the Middle East, in progress since 2011, and oil and gas sanctions levied against Russia which is embroiled in a proxy war with Ukraine. The sector is also losing out on the public relations front. The image of the oil and gas industry has also been tarnished by prominent Hollywood stars making uninformed public statements, while at the same time leaving a large carbon footprint.
The discussion noted that Canadian oil and gas has been slammed as a “dirty industry”. But Canada’s progress in reducing emissions has been ignored. For example, since 1990 emissions from each barrel of Canadian oil sands crude has been reduced by 30 per cent.
Further, the International Energy Agency has recognized Canada as a global leader in emissions-reduction through carbon capture, utilization and storage. Canada also has an excellent safety record compared to foreign oil producers. Between 2002 and 2014, 99.9 per cent of liquid product was safely transported by Canadian pipelines.
