A Fort McMurray area aboriginal band will be petitioning Calgary-based Imperial Oil over its environmental disclosure related to spills at it operations near the Kearl mine site in 2023.Specifically, the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation wants to know the full cost of reclaiming and abandoning old mine sites and tailings ponds.In its filing, the band said the leaks in 2022 and 2023 “raise serious questions about Imperial’s ability to manage the risk of long-liability assets like tailings ponds as well as its commitment to transparency.”.Shareholders resolutions don’t normally gain approval without support from management team. Imperial, which is 70% owned by Exxon Mobil, the world’s largest oil company, isn’t likely to take its marching orders from indigenous communities in the areas it operates.Nonetheless, the incident was a black eye for the company, raising scrutiny of its back door relationship with the Alberta Energy Regulator (AER). Last year company officials were called to Ottawa to testify before the Commons’ environment committee in testimony that further sullied its reputation as an honest operator.In response, the company recommended shareholders vote against the motion, which will be voted on later Tuesday..““This puts all of the oil sands players on notice. This is the start of a new way of raising concerns. It’s a new way of doing things.” Chipewyan chief Allan Adam .“Calculating asset retirement obligations as per the resolution presented would produce a set of arbitrary, uncertain and hypothetical views of the future rather than the thoughtful, fact-based approach used to produce asset retirement obligation estimates that are aligned with legal and regulatory requirements,” Imperial said in response to the filing.Nonetheless, Chipewyan chief Allan Adam told Bloomberg the motion puts all oil sands producers — not just Imperial — that it’s no longer business as usual.“This puts all of the oil sands players on notice. This is the start of a new way of raising concerns. It’s a new way of doing things.”
