- Western Canada
- Oil Sands
- Arctic
 |
Font Size |   |
100% |
Arctic
We will explore further opportunities with communities to collaborate and resolve community concerns about the Parsons Lake development over 2009-2010.
We engaged with community members to discuss access options for the Parsons Lake development to provide project updates, discuss community investment opportunities, and solicit comments, concerns and ideas. We also explored options for addressing community concerns through the Parsons Lake Access Working Group. We continue to explore different forums for community collaboration and engagement.
We will actively engage key communities in the Parsons Lake development area to understand their community investment priorities associated with the project and commit to developing an investment strategy that is mutually beneficial.
We have actively engaged with communities through visits and discussions about community investment priorities. We developed newsletters and communications specifically about community investment in the North to facilitate our discussions and ask for input on our efforts. We refined our community investment approach based on community priorities, company activity and environmental requirements.
We will continue to build local and regional employment capacity for ConocoPhillips Canada-specific needs such as skilled trades, environmental services, office management and support services through bursaries, apprenticeships and association with local training facilities and programs.
In 2008, we awarded six regional bursaries and one corporate bursary in the Northwest Territories. The following year we expanded our program to include adult training and office administration and awarded 12 regional bursaries through the 2009/10 school year. We also began developing partnerships with community schools and youth centres and a relationship with Aurora College. Lastly, we provided a tour of our Elmworth and Wembley gas plants in Alberta to students in the Youth Employment Leadership Skills program.
We will continue to incorporate local traditional knowledge at the design and planning stages of development to mitigate potential impacts of our projects.
This commitment will be fulfilled once the design phase is underway. In the interim, since several project team members within the Arctic Exploration team are new to their roles, a cultural awareness course will be provided for the team. Having understanding and awareness of Northern culture will help the team incorporate traditional knowledge when the design phase begins.
We will continue to be members of forums such as ArcticNet and the Arctic Energy Alliance that support quality research and promote responsible and sustainable development in the Arctic.
We assess potential participation in forums with consideration for the level of influence or activity of the group and alignment with our business and sustainable development priorities. Although we ended our membership in the Arctic Energy Alliance in 2009, we continue to serve on various groups that provide overall research direction including The ArcticNet Board and Technical Steering Committee, the Environmental Studies Research Fund Northern Advisory Committee, and the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers’ Northern Executive Policy Group.
We will continue to support regional research in key areas of mutual interest and concern to us and key local wildlife management agencies or organizations.
We contributed to research programs including:
- The Government of the Northwest Territories’ Environment and Natural Resources for the barren-ground caribou collaring program.
- Environment Canada’s Sea Duck Data Recovery Program and Tundra Swan Surveys.
- The University of Alberta’s Grizzly Bear Tracking Study.
- The Department of Fisheries and Oceans’ Bowhead and Beluga Whale Surveys.
We will continue to actively support the near-term implementation of regional environmental assessment principles that improve both the quality of environmental management and the environmental assessment scoping and review process by regulatory bodies in the Beaufort/Mackenzie Delta region.
We provided active support for near-term implementation of regional assessment principles in numerous ways, including:
- Submitting a discussion paper on regional environmental assessments to government to encourage a regional approach to Beaufort planning.
- Working with Inuvialuit and the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency to progress regional environmental assessment.
We served on the Beaufort Regional Environmental Assessment Steering Committee:
- Presenting to Indian and Northern Affairs Canada and the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency on next steps in our support of the Beaufort Regional Environmental Assessment Steering Committee.
- Working extensively with our peers in the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers to create a draft of the Beaufort Regional Assessment as input to the government’s plans.
We will investigate advanced technologies during the detailed design phase of Parsons Lake facilities to further reduce our footprint, minimize our impact on the biodiversity of the area and minimize greenhouse gases.
We have undertaken several studies:
- Studying the potential impact of climate change on key engineering design criteria including temperature and pile design.
- Studying new technology to reduce the amount of gravel used (insulation technology).
- Assessing new logistics, transportation and other technologies to reduce the amount of manpower and equipment required for construction and operation.
In This Section
