Alberta Regulators Suspend Steam Extraction Of Tar Sands
Rhetorical question: How bad does it have to be for Alberta to suspend a specific method of tar sands mining?
The Alberta energy regulator has suspended the fastest-growing source of bitumen production around Fort McMurray due to concerns about fracturing the regions cap rock. Last January, the regulator quietly issued a bulletin announcing the freeze on development in the Wabiskaw-McMurray deposit of the Athabasca Oil Sands Area while it completes a thorough technical review of the factors that affect reservoir containment of steam-assisted gravity drainage (SAGD) projects.
The suspension affects the development of steam operations in one hundred townships where bitumen developers plan to inject hot steam 100 to 150 metres into the ground to melt shallow formations of bitumen.
To date, five companies have been affected by the freeze including Silver Willow Energy and Ivanhoe Energy, whose 7,520-acre Tamarack Project is valued at $1.8 billion.
The [regulator] believes that the risk of steam and reservoir fluids being released at surface is greater if reservoir containment is compromised in this area due to the shallow nature of the resource, reported the bulletin.
EDIT
http://thetyee.ca/News/2014/03/05/Alberta-Regulator-Halts-Steam-Bitumen-Mining/