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Breaking: “Huff and Puff” Technology Results in Bitumen Spill, Water Contamination at Cold Lake Tar Sands Project

Authorities in the tar sands region in Alberta are responding to the release of bitumen emulsion at the Primrose project in the Cold Lake Air Weapons Range, operated by Canadian Natural Resources Limited (CNRL).

According to a press release from the Alberta Energy Regulator (AER) “the affect area is off lease and has impacted a nearby slough. The company has begun clean-up operations. There were no injuries as a result of the release. The volume of emulsion released has not been confirmed at this time." Media relations contacts were unavailable for comment at the time of publication.

Bitumen emulsion is a mixture of heavy tar sands crude know as bitumen and water from in-situ (in ground) oil production.

According to the CNRL website, the company uses a “huff and puff” technology also known as Cyclic Steam Stiumulation or CSS to develop bitumen at the Primrose project.

During in-situ bitumen recovery, steam is injected into deep underground deposits of heavy crude oil. The resulting mixture of oil and water is called an 'emulsion.' 

CSS is unlike other in-situ recovery processes because it uses only one injection and extraction well. 


The Cold Lake area lies to the south east of Fort McMurray.

CNRL projects in the immediate area include Wolf Lake, Marie Lake and Hilda Lake, which together comprise the Clearwater reservoir that contains an estimated 10 billion barrels of oil.

The Alberta Energy Regulator (AER) is presently on site and working with CNRL, Alberta Environment and Sustainable Resource Development to "ensure that the incident is controlled, contained, and all appropriate clean up and mitigation measures take place. The AER is conducting an investigation into the cause of the incident. All information is preliminary and may be changed as updates are available," according to the press release.

It is unclear at this time where on the Primrose site the release occurred. There are three distinct Primrose locations, as seen in the CNRL map below.

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As many newsrooms cut staff, The Narwhal has doubled down on hiring reporters to do hard-hitting journalism — and we do it all as an independent, non-profit news organization that doesn’t run any advertising.

Will you join the growing chorus of readers who have stepped up to hold the powerful accountable?
Threats to our environment are often hidden from public view.
So we embarked on a little experiment at The Narwhal: letting our investigative journalists loose to file as many freedom of information requests as their hearts desired.

In just six months, they filed a whopping 233 requests — and with those, they unearthed a veritable mountain of government documents to share with readers across Canada.

But the reality is this kind of digging takes lots of time and no small amount of money.

As many newsrooms cut staff, The Narwhal has doubled down on hiring reporters to do hard-hitting journalism — and we do it all as an independent, non-profit news organization that doesn’t run any advertising.

Will you join the growing chorus of readers who have stepped up to hold the powerful accountable?

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As The Narwhal turns five, I’m thinking about the momentous outpouring of public generosity — a miracle of sorts — that’s allowed us to prove the critics wrong. More than 6,000 people just like you donate whatever they can afford to make independent, high-stakes journalism about the natural world in Canada free for everyone to read. Help us keep the dream alive for another five years by becoming a member today and we’ll mail you a copy of our beautiful 2023 print magazine. — Carol Linnitt, co-founder
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