Original article by Derek Sankey, National Post
April 18, 2008
Canadian businesses are in for a greening, and one of the industries leading the growth of environmental technologies is found in the burgeoning northern Alberta oilsands projects.
New technologies and rapidly emerging environmental fields are mirroring the growth of tens of billions of dollars in energy projects ramping up quickly. It has put companies and professionals working in the environment in high demand as public pressure mounts to address global warming on several fronts.
"It's here to stay," says Randy Gossen, a vice-president at Nexen Inc. who oversees environmental operations. "Climate change is going to be with us for a long, long time."
Nexen operates near the Fort McMurray region at projects such as Long Lake, where it reuses groundwater instead of surface water by recycling it back into the system after treating it.
"In large measure, the answer to [environmental concerns] is going to be technology-driven and that technology is largely in the environmental sciences," he says, adding environmental job growth runs parallel to oilsands expansion.
Carbon capture and storage is seen as the holy grail of environmental progress in the oil and gas industry. It involves processes to store carbon dioxide in reservoirs for long periods of time. However, achieving success will require huge investments of money and labour.
"There's a lot of work that needs to be done in that area, although it looks promising," Mr. Gossen says. Nexen's Long Lake project is among other major players in the Athabasca region of northern Alberta starting to reuse the large amounts of water required to operate large-scale operations in the oilsands.
Mr. Gossen points to rising demand in technology skills focused on the control of greenhouse gas emissions and water management systems.
"We are indeed seeing this [trend] coming into a lot of industries because they're coming under a greater degree of scrutiny both by regulators and the public," says Grant Trump, president of the Environmental Careers Organization (ECO Canada) based in Calgary.
The federally funded organization monitors the growth of environmental careers across Canada and reports intensifying demand in all facets of the environmental field. In the oilpatch, that means considerable future investments in water management and greenhouse gas emissions technologies.
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