The Energy Mix

Top Menu

  • About
  • Latest Digest/Archive
  • Partners
  • Which Energy Mix is this?
  • Contact

Main Menu

  • News Archive by Category
    • Climate & Society
      • Carbon Levels & Measurement
      • Carbon-Free Transition
      • Climate Action/”Blockadia”
      • Climate Denial & Greenwashing
      • Climate Policy/Meetings/Negotiations
      • Culture, Curiosities, & Humour
      • Demographics
      • Energy Politics
      • Energy Subsidies
      • Energy/Carbon Pricing & Economics
      • Finance & Investment
      • First Peoples
      • Insurance & Liability
      • International Agencies & Studies
      • Jobs & Training
      • Legal & Regulatory
      • Media, Messaging, & Public Opinion
      • Methane
      • Travel, Leisure & Recreation
    • Climate Impacts & Adaptation
      • Biodiversity & Habitat
      • Drought, Famine & Wildfires
      • Food Security
      • Forests & Deforestation
      • Health & Safety
      • Heat & Temperature
      • Human Rights & Migration
      • Ice Loss & Sea Level Rise
      • International Security & War
      • Severe Storms & Flooding
      • Soil & Natural Sequestration
      • Water
    • Demand & Distribution
      • Air & Marine
      • Auto & Alternative Vehicles
      • Batteries/Storage
      • Buildings
      • Cities
      • Electricity Grid
      • Energy Access & Equity
      • Off-Grid
      • Petrochemicals & Plastics
      • Supply Chains & Consumption
      • Transit
      • Walking & Biking
    • Jurisdictions
      • Africa
      • Arctic & Antarctica
      • Asia
      • Australia
      • Brazil
      • Canada
      • China
      • Europe
      • India
      • International
      • Mexico, Caribbean & Latin America
      • Middle East
      • Oceans
      • Small Island States
      • South & Central America
      • Sub-National Governments
      • United States
    • Non-Renewable Energy
      • CCS & Negative Emissions
      • Coal
      • Nuclear
      • Oil & Gas
      • Pipelines/Rail Transport
      • Shale & Fracking
      • Tar Sands/Oil Sands
    • Opinion & Analysis
    • Renewable Energy
      • Bioenergy
      • Demand & Efficiency
      • General Renewables
      • Geothermal
      • Hydrogen
      • Hydropower
      • Research & Development
      • Solar
      • Wave & Tidal
      • Wind
  • Special Reports
    • Alberta’s Bitumen Pipe Dream
    • Canada’s Drive to Net Zero
    • Carbon Farming
    • City and Sub-National Action
    • Drawdown
    • Drive to 1.5
    • 26-Week Climate Transition Program for Canada
    • America’s Electoral Climate 2020
    • Canada’s Climate Change Election 2019
    • The Energy Mix Yearbook 2018
      • Climate Extremes
      • Fossils Go For Broke
      • Renewables (R)Evolution
      • Electric Vehicles
      • Canada’s Contradiction
      • COP24
      • Pipeline Politics
      • Jobs and Just Transition
      • Cities and Sub-Nationals
      • Finance and Divestment
      • Climate Litigation
  • Webinars & Podcasts
  • About
  • Latest Digest/Archive
  • Partners
  • Which Energy Mix is this?
  • Contact
  • Subscribe
  • Donate

logo

  • News Archive by Category
    • Climate & Society
      • Carbon Levels & Measurement
      • Carbon-Free Transition
      • Climate Action/”Blockadia”
      • Climate Denial & Greenwashing
      • Climate Policy/Meetings/Negotiations
      • Culture, Curiosities, & Humour
      • Demographics
      • Energy Politics
      • Energy Subsidies
      • Energy/Carbon Pricing & Economics
      • Finance & Investment
      • First Peoples
      • Insurance & Liability
      • International Agencies & Studies
      • Jobs & Training
      • Legal & Regulatory
      • Media, Messaging, & Public Opinion
      • Methane
      • Travel, Leisure & Recreation
    • Climate Impacts & Adaptation
      • Biodiversity & Habitat
      • Drought, Famine & Wildfires
      • Food Security
      • Forests & Deforestation
      • Health & Safety
      • Heat & Temperature
      • Human Rights & Migration
      • Ice Loss & Sea Level Rise
      • International Security & War
      • Severe Storms & Flooding
      • Soil & Natural Sequestration
      • Water
    • Demand & Distribution
      • Air & Marine
      • Auto & Alternative Vehicles
      • Batteries/Storage
      • Buildings
      • Cities
      • Electricity Grid
      • Energy Access & Equity
      • Off-Grid
      • Petrochemicals & Plastics
      • Supply Chains & Consumption
      • Transit
      • Walking & Biking
    • Jurisdictions
      • Africa
      • Arctic & Antarctica
      • Asia
      • Australia
      • Brazil
      • Canada
      • China
      • Europe
      • India
      • International
      • Mexico, Caribbean & Latin America
      • Middle East
      • Oceans
      • Small Island States
      • South & Central America
      • Sub-National Governments
      • United States
    • Non-Renewable Energy
      • CCS & Negative Emissions
      • Coal
      • Nuclear
      • Oil & Gas
      • Pipelines/Rail Transport
      • Shale & Fracking
      • Tar Sands/Oil Sands
    • Opinion & Analysis
    • Renewable Energy
      • Bioenergy
      • Demand & Efficiency
      • General Renewables
      • Geothermal
      • Hydrogen
      • Hydropower
      • Research & Development
      • Solar
      • Wave & Tidal
      • Wind
  • Special Reports
    • Alberta’s Bitumen Pipe Dream
    • Canada’s Drive to Net Zero
    • Carbon Farming
    • City and Sub-National Action
    • Drawdown
    • Drive to 1.5
    • 26-Week Climate Transition Program for Canada
    • America’s Electoral Climate 2020
    • Canada’s Climate Change Election 2019
    • The Energy Mix Yearbook 2018
      • Climate Extremes
      • Fossils Go For Broke
      • Renewables (R)Evolution
      • Electric Vehicles
      • Canada’s Contradiction
      • COP24
      • Pipeline Politics
      • Jobs and Just Transition
      • Cities and Sub-Nationals
      • Finance and Divestment
      • Climate Litigation
  • Webinars & Podcasts
Advanced Search
CanadaClimate Policy/Meetings/NegotiationsEnergy/Carbon Pricing & EconomicsFinance & InvestmentJobs & TrainingSub-National GovernmentsTar Sands/Oil Sands
Home›Jurisdictions›Canada›Tar Sands/Oil Sands See Sharp Decline in Capital Spending, Job Creation

Tar Sands/Oil Sands See Sharp Decline in Capital Spending, Job Creation

March 10, 2020
March 10, 2020
 
95
1
Share:
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  Print This Story
sbamueller, Oil Sands Discovery Centre/flickr

Alberta’s tar sands/oil sands have shifted decisively into a “mature” phase of development in which job creation and capital spending will continue to lag and new technologies will replace a large share of the work force laid off due to “lower-for-longer” oil prices between 2014 and 2016, according to a new analysis this week by the Edmonton-based Parkland Institute.

The report has the province’s bitumen production increasing 41%, or 1.68% per year, between 2018 and 2040—a sharp contrast from the managed decline that will be needed to stabilize Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions, but still a far cry from growth of 376%, or 8.6% per year, between 2000 and 2018. But the rest of the industry’s story is written in its job and investment numbers since the oil price crash began.

“Peak employment for the Canadian oil and gas industry in the last decade came in 2014,” writes Parkland Research Manager Ian Hussey, in an online summary of the full report. “Industry employment then decreased significantly for three years, increased slightly in 2018, and then further declined in 2019. The net result is the Canadian oil and gas industry terminated an estimated 53,119 jobs from 2014 through 2019.”

Like this story? Subscribe to The Energy Mix and never miss an edition of our free e-digest.

SUBSCRIBE

Over that same period, “capital spending (CapEx) in the Canadian conventional oil industry saw an estimated decrease of 58.2% from 2014 through 2019, and oil sands CapEx experienced an estimated decrease of 64.6%,” he adds. “Oil sands operational spending (OpEx) experienced an estimated decrease of 15.7% from 2014 through 2019, while OpEx in the Canadian conventional oil industry was estimated to be 4.1% higher in 2019 compared to 2014.”

And with the only likely new tar sands/oil sands development, Teck Resources’ proposed Frontier mine, now off the table, “oil sands CapEx is not expected to bounce back to boom-time levels and is forecast to further decline in the next decade. This is because the massive CapEx of the growth phase of the oil sands industry is over.”

But cancelled projects are not the only cause of the job losses sweeping the industry and the province. Hussey lists four new technology developments that are reducing tar sands/oil sands companies’ work force requirements: driverless trucks, horizontal multi-well drill pads, information technologies that provide less labour-intensive supervisory control, data acquisition, remote monitoring, and analytics, and smaller, modular project designs.

“Besides the thousands of job terminations connected to the 2014 oil price crash and to industry consolidation since then, and the decrease in construction jobs connected to the more than 50% cut in capital spending, labour productivity gains in the oil sands and in the Canadian conventional oil and gas sectors are being driven by technological innovations and modularization,” he writes. “In short, ‘smarter’ capital spending through the development and use of various technological and modularization innovations means less engineering, construction, and operations jobs. Despite the growth in production, fewer and fewer employees are needed,” meaning that “the jobs that have been lost in recent years are likely not coming back.”

The analysis includes details on each of the Big Five tar sands/oil sands companies’ production, reserves, capital spending, and other economic performance, as well as their climate risk disclosures and risk monitoring.

“There is no indication from any of the Big Five that they believe that any of their current assets will be stranded during the global transition to a low-carbon economy,” Hussey notes, even though they “routinely test their business decisions against various possible future scenarios and how the effects of climate change and climate policies and regulations may affect their assets and business strategies in the coming decades.” 

That leaves it to the Alberta and federal governments to “decide on a course of action to manage our country’s transition to a net-zero-emissions economy by 2050,” he concludes. “Plans that take the global climate crisis seriously will necessarily involve the managed decline of oil and gas production in the next three decades.”

Tags26 WeeksBitumen BubbleBitumen Bubble Finance & Divestment
Share:
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  Print This Story

Find more stories about
CanadaClimate Policy/Meetings/NegotiationsEnergy/Carbon Pricing & EconomicsFinance & InvestmentJobs & TrainingSub-National GovernmentsTar Sands/Oil Sands

    1 comment

    1. Tar Sands/Oil Sands See Sharp Decline in Capital Spending, Job Creation – Enjeux énergies et environnement 10 March, 2020 at 23:29 Reply

      […] The Energy Mix https://theenergymix.com/2020/03/10/tar-sands-oil-sands-see-sharp-decline-in-capital-spending-job-cr… via […]

    Leave a reply Cancel reply

    Recent Posts

    • Fossils Create Less than 1% of Canadian Jobs, Making 20-Year Phaseout ‘Very Feasible’, Study Concludes
      Fossils Create Less than 1% of Canadian Jobs, Making 20-Year Phaseout ‘Very Feasible’, Study Concludes
      January 20, 2021
    • Biden Brings a Policy ‘Sea Change’, Podesta Tells GreenPAC Webinar
      Biden Brings a Policy ‘Sea Change’, Podesta Tells GreenPAC Webinar
      January 20, 2021
    • Campaign Promises, Cabinet and Senate Leadership Put Climate at Centre of Biden Agenda
      Campaign Promises, Cabinet and Senate Leadership Put Climate at Centre of Biden Agenda
      January 20, 2021
    • TC Energy Touts ‘Zero-Emissions’ Plan, Kenney Threatens Court Action as Keystone Cancellation Looms
      TC Energy Touts ‘Zero-Emissions’ Plan, Kenney Threatens Court Action as Keystone Cancellation Looms
      January 20, 2021
    • Alberta Cancels 11 Coal Leases, Allows Development on 420,000 Hectares after Petitions Gather 100,000 Signatures [Sign-Ons]
      Alberta Cancels 11 Coal Leases, Allows Development on 420,000 Hectares after Petitions Gather 100,000 Signatures [Sign-Ons]
      January 20, 2021

    News Feed

    Top News

    • Fitch Sees Asian Solar, Wind Exceeding 1,500 GW by 2029
      January 21, 2021
    • Survey Shows Oklahoma, Texas Drawing More Fossil Investment than Alberta
      January 21, 2021

    Read More

    Carbon-Free Transition

    • Fitch Sees Asian Solar, Wind Exceeding 1,500 GW by 2029
      January 21, 2021
    • Indigenous Agroforesters Revive Palm Forests in Brazil
      January 21, 2021

    Read More

    Canada

    • Hydrogen Train Deal Brings Investor Attention to B.C-Based Ballard
      January 21, 2021
    • Analysts Tout Intertie Between Site C in B.C., Electricity Demand in Alberta
      January 21, 2021

    Read More

    U.S.

    • Climate Change Drives Up Cost of U.S. Flooding
      January 21, 2021
    • ‘Charging Deserts’ for EVs Create Racial Divide in Chicago
      January 21, 2021

    Read More

    International

    • Norway Projects Oil Production Cuts through 2023
      January 21, 2021
    • Japanese Owner Writes Off Australia’s Newest Coal Plant as Worthless
      January 21, 2021

    Read More

    • About the Energy Mix
    • Contact
    • Privacy Policy and Copyright
    Copyright 2020 © Smarter Shift Inc. and Energy Mix Productions Inc. All rights reserved.