ublished on Monday, December 10, 2007 by The Independent/UK BP Set To Commit =E2=80=98The Biggest Environmental Crime in History=E2=80= =99 by Cahal Milmo
BP, the British oil giant that pledged to move =E2=80=9CBeyond Petroleum=E2= =80=9D by=20 finding cleaner ways to produce fossil fuels, is being accused of=20 abandoning its =E2=80=9Cgreen sheen=E2=80=9D by investing nearly =C2=A31.=
5bn to extract oil=20 from the Canadian wilderness using methods which environmentalists say=20 are part of the =E2=80=9Cbiggest global warming crime=E2=80=9D in history= =2E1210 05The multinational oil and gas producer, which last year made a profit of =
=C2=A311bn, is facing a head-on confrontation with the green lobby in the= =20 pristine forests of North America after Greenpeace pledged a direct=20 action campaign against BP following its decision to reverse a=20 long-standing policy and invest heavily in extracting so-called =E2=80=9C= oil=20 sands=E2=80=9D that lie beneath the Canadian province of Alberta and form= the=20 world=E2=80=99s second-largest proven oil reserves after Saudi Arabia.
Producing crude oil from the tar sands - a heavy mixture of bitumen,=20 water, sand and clay - found beneath more than 54,000 square miles of=20 prime forest in northern Alberta - an area the size of England and Wales =
combined - generates up to four times more carbon dioxide, the principal =
global warming gas, than conventional drilling. The booming oil sands=20 industry will produce 100 million tonnes of CO2 (equivalent to a fifth=20 of the UK=E2=80=99s entire annual emissions) a year by 2012, ensuring tha= t=20 Canada will miss its emission targets under the Kyoto treaty, according=20 to environmentalist activists.
The oil rush is also scarring a wilderness landscape: millions of tonnes =
of plant life and top soil is scooped away in vast open-pit mines and=20 millions of litres of water are diverted from rivers - up to five=20 barrels of water are needed to produce a single barrel of crude and the=20 process requires huge amounts of natural gas. The industry, which now=20 includes all the major oil multinationals, including the Anglo-Dutch=20 Shell and American combine Exxon-Mobil, boasts that it takes two tonnes=20 of the raw sands to produce a single barrel of oil. BP insists it will=20 use a less damaging extraction method, but it accepts that its=20 investment will increase its carbon footprint.
Mike Hudema, the climate and energy campaigner for Greenpeace in Canada, =
told The Independent: =E2=80=9CBP has done a very good job in recent year= s of=20 promoting its green objectives. By jumping into tar sands extraction it=20 is taking part in the biggest global warming crime ever seen and BP=E2=80= =99s=20 green sheen is gone.
=E2=80=9CIt takes about 29kg of CO2 to produce a barrel of oil convention= ally.=20 That figure can be as much 125kg for tar sands oil. It also has the=20 potential to kill off or damage the vast forest wilderness, greater than =
the size of England and Wales, which forms part of the world=E2=80=99s bi= ggest=20 carbon sinks. For BP to be involved in this trade not only flies in the=20 face of their rhetoric but in the era of climate change it should not be =
being developed at all. You cannot call yourself =E2=80=98Beyond Petroleu= m=E2=80=99 and=20 involve yourself in tar sands extraction.=E2=80=9D Mr Hudema said Greenpe= ace was=20 planning a direct action campaign against BP, which could disrupt its=20 activities as its starts construction work in Alberta next year.
The company had shied away from involvement oil sands, until recently=20 regarded as economically unviable and environmentally unpleasant. Lord=20 Browne of Madingley, who was BP=E2=80=99s chief executive until May, sold= its=20 remaining Canadian tar sands interests in 1999 and declared as recently=20 as 2004 that there were =E2=80=9Ctons of opportunities=E2=80=9D beyond th= e sector. But=20 as oil prices hover around the $100-per-barrel mark, Lord Browne=E2=80=99= s=20 successor, Tony Hayward, announced that BP has entered a joint venture=20 with Husky Energy, owned by the Hong Kong based billionaire Li Ka-Shing, =
to develop a tar sands facility which will be capable of producing=20
200,000 barrels of crude a day by 2020. In return for a half share of=20 Husky=E2=80=99s Sunrise field in the Athabasca region of Alberta, the epi= centre=20 of the tar sands industry, BP has sold its partner a 50 per cent stake=20 in its Toledo oil refinery in Ohio. The companies will invest $5.5bn=20 (=C2=A32.7) in the project, making BP one of the biggest players in tar s= ands=20 extraction.Mr Hayward made it clear that BP considered its investment was the start =
of a long-term presence in Alberta. He said: =E2=80=9CBP=E2=80=99s move i= nto oil sands=20 is an opportunity to build a strategic, material position and the huge=20 potential of Sunrise is the ideal entry point for BP into Canadian oil=20 sands.=E2=80=9D
Canada claims that it has 175 billion barrels of recoverable oil in=20 Alberta, making the province second only to Saudi Arabia in proved oil=20 riches and sparking a =C2=A350bn =E2=80=9Coil rush=E2=80=9D as American, = Chinese and European=20 investors rush to profit from high oil prices. Despite production costs=20 per barrel of up to =C2=A315, compared to =C2=A31 per barrel in Saudi Ara= bia, the=20 Canadian province expects to be pumping five million barrels of crude a=20 day by 2030.
BP said it will be using a technology that pumps steam heated by natural =
gas into vertical wells to liquefy the solidified oil sands and pump it=20 to the surface in a way that is less damaging than open cast mining. But =
campaigners said this method requires 1,000 cubic feet of gas to produce =
one barrel of unrefined bitumen - the same required to heat an average=20 British home for 5.5 days.
A spokesman for BP added: =E2=80=9CThese are resources that would have be= en=20 developed anyway.=E2=80=9D
Licenses have been issued by the Albertan government to extract 350=20 million cubic metres of water from the Athabasca River every year. But=20 the water used in the extraction process, say campaigners, is so=20 contaminated that it cannot be returned to the eco-system and must=20 instead be stored in vast =E2=80=9Ctailings ponds=E2=80=9D that cover up = to 20 square=20 miles and there is evidence of increased rates of cancer and multiple=20 sclerosis in down-river communities.
Experts say a pledge to restore all open cast tar sand mines to their=20 previous pristine condition has proved sadly lacking. David Schindler,=20 professor of ecology at the University of Alberta, said: =E2=80=9CRight n= ow the=20 big pressure is to get that money out of the ground, not to reclaim the=20 landscape. I wouldn=E2=80=99t be surprised if you could see these pits fr= om a=20 satellite 1,000 years from now.=E2=80=9D
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How can BP be stopped from perpetrating this environmental =E2=80=98crime= =E2=80=99? Tell=20 us what you think. Email haveyoursay@ independent.co.uk or go to=20