Giant Wildfire Is No Longer the Canadian Oil Industry's Biggest Problem
- Technology breakthrough needed to compete in $50-oil world
- GE, Cenovus join research effort but funding may fall short
Alberta Is Burning: Canada Wildfire Still Out of Control
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Harbir Chhina helped develop the game-changing steam technology that allowed companies to tap the world’s third-largest reserves in Canada’s oil sands. It was a moonshot that paid off.
Now the oil-sands industry, still recovering from last month’s wildfires, needs another one. Without a technological breakthrough like steam injection three decades ago, the flows that have transformed the country’s economy could slow to a trickle. In a world that has plenty of cheap crude, and increasingly demands cleaner energy, the oil sands look dirty, as well as expensive.