The Oil Drum

No easy fix on emissions: Conoco

Reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the oil sands will not happen quickly, said Kevin Meyers, president of ConocoPhillips Canada, one of the country's largest energy companies.

"We need to allow the time for technology to be developed so we can implement this without major economic upheavals," Mr. Meyers said in an interview at the company's Calgary headquarters yesterday.

Earlier this week, ConocoPhillips Co., the third-largest energy company in the United States, became the first oil firm to call on Congress and the President to pass legislation to either tax carbon dioxide emissions or impose a cap on those emissions, which are the leading cause of global warming.

The company's production, after royalties, was 1.96 million barrels of oil and natural gas a day in 2006, with about 40 per cent of that in the U.S. and 12 per cent in Canada. The Alberta oil sands is a major growth area, with the eventual potential of more than 400,000 barrels a day from several projects, up from about 30,000 a barrels a day now from its 9-per-cent stake in miner Syncrude Canada Ltd.