Carbon constraints could cap Canadian oil production

摘要

There are billions of barrels of oil left in the oilsands. There is also little hope of it ever seeing daylight in a carbon-constrained future, according to a study published in science journal Nature. In the study, authors Christopher McGlade and Paul Elkins of University College London have calculated the amount of oil reserves that can be developed if the world wants to limit the impacts of climate change. The duo work with the assumption that global temperatures must be limited to an increase of two degrees Celsius—the goal currently set by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and accepted by many of the world's nations, including Canada. Every puff of carbon released into the atmosphere would need to be watched closely in such a scenario, and that means there are limits to how much oil and gas production could be allowed. According to the study, Canada could only develop 7.5 billion barrels of bitumen between 2010 and 2050, even with the aid of carbon capture and storage (CCS) technologies. That would leave 85 percent of the country's 48 billion barrels of bitumen reserves in the ground. Without CCS, bitumen production would dwindle to nothing by 2040, the authors write.