AUGUST 2013
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business elite canada
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timated at 4.6 billion barrels,
and the potential to double
Imperial Oil’s production by
2020, the Kearl project is ex-
pected to be among the larg-
est oil sands projects in the
world by 2020, in terms of
volume and capital cost.
“We believe that Kearl is the
best project out there,” “Cer-
tainly, we’ve incorporated
into our project execution for
Kearl lessons Imperial learned
at its Cold Lake operation.”
The Cold Lake oil sands, lo-
cated near the Alberta-Sas-
katchewan border, are one
of the oldest oil sands devel-
opments, with commercial
production launched in 1985.
With years of experience han-
dling that project, and internal
funding by Imperial, who own
71 per cent of the sands, and
co-owners ExxonMobil Cana-
da, the project came to frui-
tion after a lengthy process.
Public disclosure of the
project was made by Mobil
Canada in 1997, and follow-
ing the merger of Mobil and
Exxon in 1999 and other de-
velopments, Imperial formally
made a regulatory application
filing for the Kearl project in
2005. Despite a regulatory/
legal challenge that resulted
in a one-year delay, the Atha-
basca Oil Sands-centered
mining project was approved
by regulators in 2009 and was
subsequently approved by Im-
perial’s board the same year.
“The key challenge would be
managing the cost, regulatory
and other challenges, of build-
ing a world-scale project,
building a grassroots world-
scale project,” Rolheiser said.
That includes the environmen-
tal impacts, of which Imperial
has been careful to mind. A
