The Parkland Burnaby Refinery on Burrard Inlet at sunset in Burnaby, B.C., on April 17, 2021.DARRYL DYCK/The Canadian Press
Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. CNQ-T has no plans to tear up its carbon capture budget, even as the future of the country’s emissions-reduction policies are in limbo after the resignation of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
The Calgary-based oil giant earmarked $90-million for carbon capture in its 2025 budget, released Thursday.
Canada’s largest oil sands producers, through a consortium called the Pathways Alliance, have pledged to bring production to net-zero by 2050. Part of that plan includes a large joint carbon capture project. Although the federal government introduced investment tax credits to bolster the project, there is no final deal on funding from a federal financing agency called the Canada Growth Fund.
Ottawa introduced a ream of emissions-reduction policies under Mr. Trudeau, but many of them – particularly the consumer carbon tax and federal oil and gas emissions cap – have been loudly decried by Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre.
Mr. Poilievre has said little, however, on what his party would do to fight climate change should it be elected.
Oil sands CEOs optimistic for movement on $16-billion carbon capture project
No matter what happens in Ottawa the company wants the Pathways carbon capture project to move forward, CNRL president Scott Stauth told an investor call Thursday morning.
“We continue to focus on the fiscal side of things, in terms of all the parties coming together on this. So I think we’re a little bit more positive than you’re suggesting,” Mr. Stauth said.
Mr. Stauth said money allocated to carbon capture in this year’s budget is primarily for engineering work for the Pathways project, as well as at the Scotford Upgrader outside Edmonton, and the company’s Horizon Oil Sands site and thermal oil sands properties.
“We’re progressing these carbon capture projects on from an engineering perspective for 2025,” he said.
The Canada Growth Fund is a $15-billion independent public fund created in 2023 by Ottawa to support carbon capture and other forms of clean technology, but its previous discussions with Pathways fizzled out before anything substantive was put on paper. Negotiations directly between Pathways and the federal government about carbon-capture financing, before Ottawa decided that it would leave such talks to the CGF, also proved fruitless.
Late last year, however, the CGF for the first time put forward a specific proposal to back a multibillion-dollar investment in the Pathways CCS project.
Also in its budget Thursday, CNRL said it plans to boost overall oil and gas production by 12 per cent in 2025, to between 1.51 million and 1.55 million barrels of oil equivalent a day in 2025. That’s about 170,000 more barrels a day compared with 2024.
The company says the growth is in part owing to its previously announced US$6.5-billion acquisition of Chevron Canada Ltd.’s interests in the Athabasca Oil Sands Project and Duvernay Shale, which was completed in 2024.
CNRL says its operating capital budget for 2025 is set at approximately $6-billion, up from its 2024 forecast of $5.42-billion.
Mr. Stauth said the company is also pursuing opportunities to increase production at Horizon and the Athabasca Oil Sands Project.
The company completed a project to enhance reliability at Horizon in 2024, which shifted plant turnarounds to once every two years, instead of annually. Mr. Stauth said capital savings are targeted to be approximately $75-million in 2025 compared to 2024.
The company says it plans to drill 361 crude oil and natural gas wells in the year ahead.
With a report from Canadian Press