ConocoPhillips, one of Rimbey’s largest employers and its best corporate partner released their sustainable Development Report last week to illustrate their commitment to striking a balance between their goal of providing the energy required by society and minimizing the impact on the environment.
“I’m pretty impressed with the report. I think it speaks to what the company is,” said Operations Leader Leon Heck of the Rimbey North operation. “They’ve put a lot of effort into it with their vision of what we want to do today and what we want to do tomorrow. I think it’s a very-well prepared document for the general public or whoever is interested in reading it.”
The report includes 45 commitments made by the company to stakeholders and their employees including expanding energy conservation and efficiency; reducing the amount on fresh water used to drill and complete oil and gas wells; establishing and publicly reporting their efforts to reduce greenhouse gases and creating local and regional employment opportunities in the trades and environmental services through bursaries, apprenticeships and associations with local training facilities and programs.
In addition, the company has also gone above and beyond when it comes to giving back to the province and in particular, the local community.
“Last year we introduced the Alberta Farm Safety DVD. That idea came from the Rimbey district operation,” Heck said. “It was launched in Bluffton last year and I think it’s had a pretty big impact on the farming community. We’re trying to get it into the schools so that future generations can farm safely and it also teaches them about our industry and what to watch out for, so we’re pretty proud of it.”
That wasn’t the only connection the company made with Bluffton as they also played a big role in restoring a park on the northern edge of the town.
“Another thing we were involved with last year was the Bluffton Commemorative Memorial Park – we were a pretty big sponsor of that,” Heck said. “We’re very proud of that and it turned out to be very nice. From what it was to begin with to what it ended up as, it was a great project. It was driven by their Chamber of Commerce and Maeghan (Menear) but it turned out very well.”
They’ve also made a firm commitment to protecting the environment.
“When they the company talks about reducing emissions, we did a study last year with an infrared camera where we went to all our sites in the Rimbey and Pigeon Lake areas,” Heck said. “Conoco owns two of them and the technology can detect the smallest gas leak on tubing, fittings and along the line. We did a full survey in this area and although it was nothing major, we did find a whole bunch of small leaks so we went around and repaired all of them.”
In many cases they’ve also converted to solar power to provide energy to their pumps throughout the region and have also installed 40 new low-emission pumps that use one-third of the gas required to run conventional pumps.
While some areas of the province still require the usage of fresh water in the recovery of oil, Heck said the practice is not done locally and the company has committed to eventually eliminating it altogether.
“We’re by no means a perfect company, but I think Conoco really tries to be a good corporate citizen,” Heck added. “It isn’t all rosy every day in our world either. As a whole, when I look at the Rimbey district and see the number of people we employ, the taxes we pay and everything else, I hope your readers would rather have us here than not.”
In light of the fact that the company employs 65 people in fulltime employment including sub-contractors and have made substantial donations to more than 60 different groups, organizations and charities in the past year including a pre-Christmas donation of $5,000 to the Rimbey Food Bank, the company most certainly is a vital part of the health of the local economy.
“At the end of the day we’re trying to get something out of the ground that everyone needs. Eventually down the road – however many years, there’ll be solar, nuclear and whatever other power they can come up with, but in the meantime, we still have to drive to work and heat our homes,” Heck said. “But I think we’ve certainly done some good things in this area over the years.”