Surmont Project Land Footprint

Alberta's landmass is approximately 662,000 square kilometres. Of that, about .01 percent or 602 square kilometres currently contains oil sands mining and steam-assisted gravity drainage (SAGD) development. The Surmont Project’s land footprint includes clearing for the central processing facility and administration buildings, roads, wellpads and well pad access. Other related footprints include exploration activities such as wells and low-impact seismic lines to delineate the oil sands resource.

Our planned footprint for Surmont Phases 1 and 2 through 2011:

* Closed is defined as programs for which ConocoPhillips Canada has received confirmation that no outstanding environmental conditions exist and the work was completed to an acceptable standard according to regulations.

Coordinated Planning and Reducing Land Disturbance

We coordinate our plans for roads, processing facilities and wellpads with Alberta-Pacific Forest Industries’ plan for timber harvesting. During the initial development of Surmont Phases 1 and 2, Alberta-Pacific Forest Industries harvested the trees in the areas surrounding the development in order to minimize land disturbance and maximize timber recovery. In addition, Alberta-Pacific Forest Industries provided the saplings that we planted on our reclaimed lands as part of our Faster Forests program.

Low-Impact Seismic Technology

Another example of how we reduce our impact on land is through the use of low-impact seismic-line cutting technology. Low-impact seismic uses mulchers to zig-zag along the forest floor, reducing cutlines to about one third their traditional width, minimizing land disturbance and keeping the forest canopy intact. We were an early adopter of this technology. When we no longer need to access these seismic lines, they are left to reforest naturally.

Reclamation Planning

Alberta Environment and Alberta Sustainable Resource Development regulate forest reclamation guidelines.

As per the emerging guidelines, we will replant trees on 100 percent of drilling-related sites in forested regions within five years of site abandonment. We plan for wellpads to be decommissioned and reclaimed after approximately 10 to 15 years of production life. In addition, we reclaim the vast majority of the footprint associated with our delineation-well drilling programs within five years of construction. Roughly 763 sites in our oil sands lease areas over the last 15 years have been reclaimed as required. In some cases, reclamation certificates have been obtained. In others, we are continuing our reclamation efforts.

Our reclamation efforts on our oil sands leases to date are as follows:

Most of the lands on which we operate are dry uplands that can be reforested within two to 10 years so they quickly become part of the natural forest growth cycle. For Surmont Phase 2, we will do continuous reclamation. This means we start planting trees and other vegetation through our Faster Forests program as soon as the area cleared is no longer required for construction or operation purposes.

Reclaimed sites are monitored annually until reclamation certificates are obtained from regulators. We report annually on the status of our reclamation program to regulators through Conservation and Reclamation Reports.

Reclamation since 2007 Report

Oil Sands Leadership Initiative – Land Stewardship Working Group

The Land Stewardship Working Group of the Oil Sands Leadership Initiative is focused on demonstrating performance improvement in reducing land footprint and related impacts. The group’s early work focused on planting trees on areas recently used for oil sands exploration. Though not required by regulation, accelerating recovery of historic footprint to forest ecosystems has been recommended by several multi-stakeholder groups. Companies participating in the Oil Sands Leadership Initiative planted approximately 180,000 trees in 2009 to begin work on fulfilling these recommendations. ConocoPhillips Canada planted 30,000 of these trees through our Faster Forests Program.

Similar work planned to focus on addressing historic linear features fragmenting woodland caribou habitat. Consistent with the recommendations of the Athabasca Landscape Team report, the Oil Sands Leadership Initiative works closely with Alberta Sustainable Resource Development to identify specific habitat areas and approaches to use to support successful woodland caribou recovery. Restoration of habitat could form the basis of a “conservation offset.”

Faster Forests

In 2009, we launched an innovative reclamation program called Faster Forests, which plants trees on exploratory wellsites to help accelerate forest re-growth. We will continue our Faster Forests program at our Surmont Project.

The University of Alberta is conducting a 10-year study about reducing the wellsite footprint in our industry. This report was funded by several members of industry and Surmont was one of the study sites. We are leveraging that research and, where appropriate, implementing the practices they recommended after the first five years of the study.

While in its early stages, Faster Forests has a lot of potential for restoring the forest more quickly than it would otherwise be restored. Faster Forests is about more than planting trees – we plan to evolve the program. Over the long term, it could create work opportunities for local contractors and suppliers and demonstrate a significant step-change in reclamation time and footprint reduction from the way we do things now. We also see opportunities for expanding the type of vegetation we plant to ensure the area will be suitable for wildlife habitation. We plan to work with First Nations to identify the types of vegetation that may have traditional uses.

We anticipate we will exceed regulatory expectations by planting trees and other vegetation on reclaimed wellsites and in other areas cleared for oil sands development. Under current reclamation standards, producers are required to restore the land to equivalent land capability, typically achieved by using natural restoration methods or by planting native grasses. These methods of reclamation take many years before trees start to grow. Faster Forests gives forests a head start because we plant trees in the clearances, which accelerates how quickly the area is reforested. In 2009, we planted 30,000 trees on 30 different sites through Faster Forests.