IMO:CC - Imperial Oil ordered to fix wastewater seepage from Kearl tailing ponds

Imperial Oil ( NYSE: IMO ) said Wednesday it is working with the Alberta Energy Regulator to fix wastewater seepage from tailings ponds at its Kearl oil sands project, after reporting a second leak in recent days.

The regulator issued an environmental protection order to Imperial ( IMO ) earlier this week, giving the company a week to submit a plan to intercept and contain the seepage before the spring snowmelt, and until the end of February to figure out how to fix the problem.

The AER said the seepage, first reported in May 2022 after pools of discolored surface water were spotted, involves industrial wastewater leaking from the external tailings area in four locations on and outside the boundaries of the 240K bbl/day Kearl oil sands site.

Imperial ( IMO ) said it has been working to determine the cause of the seepage and that the issue is related to gaps within the seepage interception system.

Imperial ( IMO ) recently reported Kearl's Q4 total gross production was 284K bbl/day, in-line with its previous record quarterly production set in Q4 2020 .

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