There\u2019s a natural experiment about how innovation works unfolding in the oilpatch.<\/p>\n
In 2021, Calgary generated two notable carbon capture announcements.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The big bitumen miners launched<\/a> the Oil Sands Pathways to Net Zero initiative, featuring a massive infrastructure project that would cost<\/a> $16.5 billion, but make emissions from their vast fields carbon neutral by 2050.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, instead of a plan and a promise, Advantage Energy, a lesser known producer of light oil and natural gas, announced<\/a> a breakthrough. In-house research and development had turned up results so encouraging that Advantage created a separate company devoted exclusively to carbon capture. It called the spinoff Entropy, and said it would deploy the technology at its Glacier gas plant near Grande Prairie, Alta., over two phases at a cost of about $76 million.\u00a0<\/p>\n Fast forward five years.\u00a0<\/p>\n The Pathways partners have completed<\/a> \u201csignificant engineering, subsurface evaluation and environmental field work,\u201d but it will be years before they know if their moonshot works, assuming they ever build it. The project has become<\/a> a bargaining chip in negotiations with Prime Minister Mark Carney and Alberta Premier Danielle Smith over ramping up heavy oil production to fill a new West Coast pipeline.\u00a0<\/p>\n It\u2019s fair to wonder if enthusiasm for Pathways has waned over the years. The top executives from its longest-standing members\u2014Canadian Natural Resources Limited, Suncor Energy, Cenovus Energy, MEG Energy, Imperial Oil and ConocoPhillips Canada\u2014have all been replaced since they announced the venture.\u00a0<\/p>\n Imperial, a Canadian subsidiary of U.S. oil giant ExxonMobil, said<\/a> last year that it plans to cut 20 per cent of its staff and mostly vacate Calgary by 2027. Cenovus absorbed<\/a> MEG, giving the oilsands the look of a comfortable oligopoly rather than a team of rivals. In February, the Pathways collective changed<\/a> its name to the Oil Sands Alliance, relegating the original raison d\u2019etre of their collaboration to the status of \u201cproject.\u201d What started as an interesting team-up has slowly morphed into yet another lobbying outfit.\u00a0<\/p>\n Entropy is still Entropy, albeit with some additional owners. In 2022, Brookfield Asset Management invested<\/a> $300 million, and in 2023 the Canada Growth Fund added<\/a> $200 million. Advantage\u2019s ownership stake has been diluted, but the technology it developed is on the verge of being deployed at commercial scale. The company is on track to attach a carbon capture and underground storage system to a turbine at Glacier this summer. Entropy says it will be the first in the world to do so, an achievement that would lend some credibility to Carney\u2019s claim that Canada can be both a conventional and a clean energy superpower.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s really hard to differentiate yourself as an oil and gas company,\u201d Sanjay Bishnoi, the longtime energy executive who was named Entropy\u2019s CEO in 2024, said in an interview at CERAWeek in Houston last month. \u201cThe Advantage team had the foresight of saying, \u2018This is a good way for us to differentiate ourselves\u2019 and have a cleantech angle within a traditional energy company.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n That wasn\u2019t the only motivation. Like the behemoths that mine the oilsands, Advantage was confronting the possibility that global policymakers were on the verge of seriously restricting the use of fossil fuels. If it wanted to grow, it might have to step out of its comfort zone and discover a way to reduce emissions.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt was bold,\u201d said Bishnoi. \u201cNot a lot of people were thinking that way. Most people were saying, \u2018How do we just beat this politically?\u2019 The Advantage team had the foresight to say, \u2018No, we\u2019re going to see if we can create a new product out of it.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n