CALGARY, Alberta, Sept. 15 (UPI) -- Carbon dioxide captured from the production of oil sands in Canada will allay environmental concerns associated with development, Shell said.
Shell announced Wednesday that it started an expansion project tied to its operations at the Athabasca oil sands project. Production at the site, the Jackpine mine, adds another 100,000 barrels of oil equivalent to the existing capacity of 155,000 boe per day produced at the facility.
Marvin Odum, the director of upstream activity for Shell, said in a statement that the Jackpine mine was a "tremendous addition" to his company's oil sands portfolio.
"Canada's oil sands are an important source of energy in a world with increasing energy needs," he said. "Shell is committed to developing this resource responsibly and to pursuing opportunities to reduce the impacts of our oil sands operations."
Environmental groups complain that oil sands development would cause irreparable harm to the environment and release substantial amounts of harmful carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere.
Odum said that to reduce the carbon footprint associated with oil sands development, his company has proposed an advanced carbon capture and storage project that would store more than 1 million tons of CO2 underground.
