TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – Global fossil fuels major Royal Dutch Shell on Monday celebrated a decade of oil sands production as operator of the Athabasca oil sands project.

Starting with just a handful of employees, over the last ten years Shell had built an oil sands mining and upgrading business capable of delivering more than 250 000 bbl/d, providing 17% of Canada's total oil production, and employing more than 3 000 staff and thousands of contractors.

Since production began in 2003, the Athabasca oil sands project had produced more than 500-million barrels of oil - enough to power more than 3.1-million homes for a year - and made significant achievements in improving environmental performance.

In 2004 the Athabasca oil sands project became the first oil sands mine in the world to receive International Organisation for Standardisation 14001 certification for environmental management.

Last year, Shell announced it would build the world's first carbon-capture-and-storage project in the oil sands to store more than one-million tonnes of carbon dioxide more than 2 km underground. In recent years, greenhouse-gas and water intensities were improved at the mine.

"I'm very proud of what has been achieved over the last ten years. The oil sands are an important long-term business opportunity for Shell and an economic engine for Canada and beyond. We recognise that we must continue to improve the environmental performance of our oil sands operations if we are to compete in a world rightly asking more of the energy it uses. We believe economic and environmental performance go hand in hand and look to lead in both,” Shell Canada president Lorraine Mitchelmore said.

Shell was also active in a number of oil sands industry initiatives, including Canada's Oil Sands Innovation Alliance, which was working to accelerate improvement in environmental performance by permitting oil sands operators to share environmental technologies and collaborate in their implementation.

Critical to the Athabasca oil sands project success was the support of local First Nations, Métis groups and the community of Fort McMurray.

Shell said it was proud to have invested more than $1.25-billion with local Aboriginal businesses and several million in funding across the region for a variety of educational organisations and programmes, including the Northern Lights Health Region, the Father Patrick Mercredi Science and Technology Centre and, most recently, Shell Place at McDonald Island Park.

"Over the next decade, Shell sees opportunities to invest in our oil sands operations and increase production while lowering the environmental footprint. Our aim is to get more barrels for less carbon, less water and less impact to the land," Mitchelmore said.