Natural Resources committee  At Cold Lake we're trying what we call our cyclic solvent pilot. It's a $100-million pilot project that will start producing in 2013. We've actually already drilled the wells and we're installing the facilities now. We'll inject a hydrocarbon-based solvent into the reservoir, rat

Natural Resources committee  Imperial operates a refinery in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. Imperial has a 9% working interest in Sable. Imperial has a couple of refineries in Ontario. That's pretty much the extent of our current business in the east.

Natural Resources committee  The economics of a refinery on the east coast—in particular, Dartmouth—are challenging. We have evaluated options for how to deal with that. One option that we're considering and we are in the process of evaluating is whether there would be interested buyers of that facility. We'

Natural Resources committee  Most of the oil that would be refined at Dartmouth would be brought in by ships. Some of that comes from Hibernia, as an example, up in Newfoundland and Labrador. Some of it is imported from other regions of the world.

Natural Resources committee  Yes, and I apologize: I'm not sure what Come By Chance imports, but historically Dartmouth has refined some of Hibernia's crude.

Natural Resources committee  While I was there for about four years, I managed ExxonMobil Canada's offshore projects—Sable, our interest in Hibernia, our interest in Terra Nova—and I also began to help support movement of Hebron, to get the development under way.

Natural Resources committee  That's a tall order. I will say that there has been a history of innovation to date on the east coast as well as in the oil sands. Hibernia is an example that. When it was initially developed, it was estimated to be around a half a billion barrels of recoverable oil. Today it's e

Natural Resources committee  Absolutely. Industry is constantly looking at different ways to identify resources without drilling. Data management technology—the ability to handle larger and larger data sets on a single machine—has enabled 3-D seismic surveys to come a long way and see formations that we woul

Natural Resources committee  I think markets should work for themselves in the base case, and the industry is incented to go out and pursue hydrocarbons, and has been doing so over time. The programs in Canada help attract those dollars to be spent in Canada as opposed to spending them with affiliates, maybe

Natural Resources committee  Actually, on the first question, I can say that industry, in total, by permit, is allocated and allowed to withdraw from the Athabasca River 3% of its annual flow. Today industry collectively withdraws less than half of that allocation, so it's 1.5%. I could get you an estimate o

Natural Resources committee  On the life cycle greenhouse gas emissions for Kearl, IHS CERA, recently put out a study, I believe in November 2012, in which they compared an oil sands mine that uses a paraffinic froth treatment, which doesn't require an upgrader, to a basket of crude oil refined in the U.S. W

Natural Resources committee  Access to markets is clearly important to us. We believe that pipeline transport is the safest way to move oil and natural gas, but we take a very long-term view and temporary ups and downs in commodity prices don't tend to shape our strategy. We do believe that there is a long-t

Natural Resources committee  As I said in my opening remarks, we've been in business for 130 years. There is no end to the challenges of extracting hydrocarbons from underground. Every year we're constantly faced with opportunities to do it better, how to recover a greater percentage of the oil and natural g

Natural Resources committee  Ultimately it's the resource that we're trying to extract. If we cannot do it today economically, the—

Natural Resources committee  Thank you, Chairman. Good morning, and thank you for the opportunity to speak to the committee today on innovation and responsible development of the Canadian oil sands. I've had the opportunity to work for Imperial Oil and Exxon Mobil affiliates in various parts of the world f