How technology is shaping the future of Canadian oil and gas
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Summary
Reene Abiro of Secure Energy Services joins me in this episode to talk about the importance of the oil and gas industry taking a leading role in the fight against climate change, and why the industry needs to do more to reduce its environmental footprint.
Transcript
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joined by renee abiro of secure just start with a basic question for people that aren't as familiar
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with the ins and outs of the industry what are energy services and how do you fit into this
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landscape yeah great great question in in terms of we've been around for all of 17 years you know
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started in 2000 will be 17 years next year started in 2007 and March 2007 and and really try to develop
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a company that was there to help the oil and gas industry and which is now involved into many
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industries mining and industrial but the premise was that we wanted to be an environmental company
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we wanted to be involved with waste management the byproducts of the oil and gas but we also
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want to be involved in some of the proactive practices of how do you actually reduce your
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environmental footprint and this was back before esg was sexy long before the paris agreement all
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all all the above but to give the testament to our customers they were also willing participants in
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that they could see the old practices of 30 40 50 years ago were causing you know liabilities that
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they didn't want to you know have in the future so there was all i think a mutual interest there how
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could we work together we also wanted to help them in just the day-to-day production so you know the
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simple things that that that look simple but are complicated is you know as you produce the oil and
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natural gas there's also water byproducts there's waste that gets built up and and so handling that day-to-day
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production waste as well and then final finally we're helping with some of the remediation and
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the reclamation of of their wells as they became suspended to abandonment and finally putting it
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back to what nature was there before the narrative we hear today certainly from a lot of people in
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government and even more so in environmental NGOs is that the industry is the problem to the environment
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and the government is the solution so that doesn't square with the story you've just told that the
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industry taking a leading role on this so what are people missing in this discussion yeah first of
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all you know reading headlines or reading biased statements versus getting out there and actually
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seeing what's going on is you know perception versus reality and and so i've had the luxury of
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because secure has been very successful wanting to expand all around the world and whether you go to
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texas or you could go to kazakhstan or you go to the middle east it doesn't matter colombia um canada has
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not only the best regulations but the best regulations that are followed there's there's a lot of countries
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that have good regulations but they're not enforced so it's all about not only not only having good
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regulations but also following but the great thing about our industry was that right from day one
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industry had an input and bought into the new regulations so they didn't fight them and so
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as time developed they could see the benefits of environment you know stricter environmental
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regulations was actually better for the business long term so before the whole esg theme started to
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come about our customers were thinking asking us to help them be more proactive with any type of
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environmental uh aspects of the business and you look at the environmental footprint that that was
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around 50 even 15 years ago versus today the you know drilling 8 to 12 wells on one pad versus you
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know having 8 or 12 leases all that is now on one lease you know so and then the pipeline coming
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from there to get the oil or gas to to the processing plant to get it to the market huge smaller footprint
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everybody's worked together in terms of reducing emissions we've been doing a lot of things a lot
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of product was moved by truck now that's pipeline connected so you're taking trucks off the road that
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burn diesel but you're also from a safety aspect you're not worried about all these trucks on different
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roads and highways so all these little things are adding up to reducing the overall emissions intensity
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it's also reducing their long-term liabilities so it's a win-win there's there's not this is
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costing us more business it's actually the right thing for not only the planet earth but for their
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business and we've been able to create a business where we're adding value to the customers and so
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that that's where it becomes a win-win i know the words themselves are fraught but we have the
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government articulating this so-called just transition that basically imagines a future without
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the oil and gas sector and there are very real world consequences to that and really the stated
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objectives i go back to what we were talking about a few moments ago or things that you're saying the
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industry has already been committed to so where is the breakdown here and and why has that work not
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really been rewarded by governments not just in canada but but around the world we're seeing a lot of
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the same yeah i i i think when you know right i i i i look at it no differently than someone picks up a
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new religion i'm not going to be able to convince them to change religion so if you have open-minded
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people that want to get away from the big cities and and come and walk you know in in footsteps you know
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and and and actually see what's going on and and most most of uh uh our visitors that have come from
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other countries are astonished to see that the cleanliness the the uh how we how we have all this
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environmental protection we we do sometimes two three different liners to protect the earth you know
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we have all these gas blanket system to reduce emissions and so and make sure that they don't go in
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the atmosphere so when people actually get out there and touch it and feel it they come away with
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a whole different story and this even goes to the investment world which you know you hear about you
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know not wanting to invest in oil gas a lot of our investors we encourage them to go to the field and
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see what's going on and come away with a totally different perspective as opposed to reading headlines
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in a newspaper or a tv show well and i think that's why this series has been so valuable in these
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conversations because there there are a lot of canadians that i don't think know one way or
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another so they're they're probably open-minded and the first person or the loudest person to give
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them their position is probably the one that they'll take so i'll ask i guess more of a general
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question here i mean what is it you think canadians who are not connected to this industry need to know
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about it well i think first of all they can they can uh sleep at night knowing that they're the
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canadian oil and gas industry has the best environmental regulations and the best standards
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in the world so bar none bar none i've seen them i've been there bar none second of all you know
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this this industry is not resting on its laurels it's saying okay we're going to stay number one
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for a long long time so how do we capture co2 how do we reduce further emissions how do we make
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things more efficient and that's been a market-led process yeah and and and that has nothing to do with
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government that has to do with the dna of of our oil and gas industry and then secondly as we've seen
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and and you know we we have the coastal lng pipeline going to kitimat we have the tmx coming up we're
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going to be able to not only do that for north america but if you can start exporting that around
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the world it starts to begs the question that if you can get more canadian energy around the world
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i.e exported then you're not only having high environmental standards but you've got lower
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emissions and you're replacing production from a nigeria or venezuela that does never mind all the
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ethical boundaries around uh being a democratic versus a tongue democratic and and suppressing
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freedom so i mean i would just you know all i ask is people to get the facts just get the facts
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and if you if you want you you know uh please come out and see it but just get the facts and and then
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at least then make your judgment we're at amiro secure thank you okay thank you thanks for listening
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