The benefits of investing in research, development, innovation and education are evident from the Alberta Oil Sands Technology Research Authority (AOSTRA) experience.
 | | Dr. Roger Butler invented the SAGD bitumen-extraction process used in the oil sands. | AOSTRA was formed in 1974 to develop technologies to enable economic recovery and upgrading of the vast bitumen resources and fill the gap left by declining conventional oil production. From 1974 to 1999, AOSTRA invested a total of about $2 billion (measured in today's dollars, with approximately half provided by government and half by industry) in developing technologies that have made the oil sands one of the fastest-growing industries in Canada.
Just one example of AOSTRA's investment was the development of Steam-Assisted Gravity Drainage (SAGD) by Dr. Roger Butler at the University of Calgary. More than 90 per cent of the oil sands deposits can only be recovered with such in situ techniques. Dr. Butler's pioneering work in SAGD technology alone has dramatically expanded the potential for oil sands development.
What has the AOSTRA investment meant in terms of total output, income and jobs?
The Statistics Canada Input Output model was used to estimate the impacts of a scenario where actual/projected oil sands developments after the mid-1970s were delayed or did not occur in the absence of AOSTRA. These results show the impact to be a gain of $140 billion in GDP, $55 billion in personal income and $16 billion in government revenue for Alberta alone from 1975 to 2001. The impacts in the future are even larger.
The StatsCan model was also used to model four other ‘what if’ scenarios involving R&D investments that would lead to: - Coalbed methane development sufficient to offset the decline in conventional gas production
- Upgrading of otherwise non-upgraded bitumen in Alberta
- Development of new feedstocks (i.e. as part of oil sands development) to allow another expansion of the petrochemical industry similar to the most recent expansion at Joffre
- A significant reduction in the expected negative economic effects associated with implementing the Kyoto Protocol
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