Varcoe: With election over, can government and oilsands industry find path forward for $16.5B carbon capture project?
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With the 2025 federal election in the books, can the mammoth $16.5-billion carbon capture network proposed by the Pathways Alliance — one of the most ambitious developments in the Canadian oilsands — get back on track?
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It's an important question for the province, the industry and the country.
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'I have been surprised how long it has taken to get a consensus among all the participants, and I was more optimistic probably two years ago than I am today,' Murray Edwards, executive chair of Canadian Natural Resources, said in an interview Thursday.
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'Given the change in global politics, the election of a new president south of the border, clearly, there has been a step back on some of the social-environmental initiatives. And where Pathways fits in that, I think is still to be determined.'
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Oil and gas remains the country's largest export, a huge creator of jobs, royalties and government revenues.
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With rising oilsands production, it's also the largest emitting sector in Canada, and Pathways Alliance was formed to tackle that issue amid growing climate concerns.
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The group includes the country's largest oilsands operators — Suncor Energy, Imperial Oil, MEG Energy, Canadian Natural Resources, Cenovus Energy and ConocoPhillips Canada.
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The alliance's foundational project would see a 400-kilometre pipeline built to connect more than 20 oilsands facilities in northern Alberta to an underground storage hub near Cold Lake, where CO2 would be sequestered deep underground.
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Yet, negotiations between Ottawa, the province and the oilsands producers surrounding the proposed development — including the sharing of costs — have progressed slowly.
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Cenovus Energy CEO Jon McKenzie said Thursday that discussions were in a 'holding pattern' recently with the election.
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'We need those two levels of government to come together and create a path forward for us where those projects can get done and the industry can remain competitive,' McKenzie said.
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