With the official opening of the long-awaited Trans Mountain pipeline expansion just days away, those who live and work in the Fort McMurray region hope their fortunes are once again headed for an upswing
Mark Clark at the Cenovus Christina Lake oil sands facility steam-assisted gravity drainage pad, southeast of Fort McMurray, Alta., on April 24.As the urban centre at the heart of Canada’s oil sands industry, Fort McMurray has seen more than its share of ups and downs.
‘What supports them, supports us’ – a community tied to one industry Fort McMurray, population 68,000, is situated in northern Alberta in the heart of the Athabasca oil sands, the world’s third-largest proven crude oil reserve. “We are so heavily supported by oil sands operators in the region, that when things that are important to them – like the Trans Mountain pipeline – happen, there are direct benefits to us. What supports them, supports us.”
Still, oil sands producers have been waiting for this pipeline for a long time. Export issues have been a thorn in the side of Canadian energy companies for years, due to a lack of pipeline capacity from Alberta’s oil sands region to coastal tanker loading facilities. The additional export capacity that Trans Mountain will provide means that 2024 is expected to be a boom year for oil output.
Technological advancements have also meant that companies now know how to increase their oil output without massive increases in capital spending. “The oil sands of 15 years ago, we just didn’t have some of the technologies or the operating experience and practices that we have today,” Cenovus’ Zieglgansberger said.Many people’s mental image of Fort McMurray is synonymous with the period when the community was a bustling boom town defined by heavy traffic, high housing costs and money that seemed to grow on trees.
“COVID happened, the flood happened, the fire happened – and we’ve not seen the town the same way,” Thapa said. “So many small businesses have already closed and left town … so many things have changed since I moved here.” The industry believes it can continue to grow while reducing its environmental impact. Six of the largest oil sands companies have banded together to form what they call the Pathways Alliance, through which they are proposing to build what would be one of the largest carbon capture and storage projects in the world.
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