While overall greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from oil sands operations are still rising, some producers are improving their environmental performance, according to the latest available government data analysed by CanOils. Total GHGs from oil sands projects increased 9.3% to 62.8 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) in 2010, this compared with an estimated 13% rise in production CanOils estimates.
However, efficiency gains by in situ producers were offset by rising GHG per unit emissions from integrated producers. Emissions from integrated projects (those that both extract and upgrade bitumen) increased to an average 119 kg of CO2e per barrel of synthetic crude production in 2010, up from 113 kg per barrel in 2009. In contrast, emissions from in situ projects were down for a second consecutive year, emitting 79 kg for every bitumen barrel of production compared with more than 89 kg in 2007. The combined total average emissions in 2010 were 110 kg CO2e emissions per barrel.
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