Canadian Natural Resources Limited

Canadian Natural Resources Limited is one of Canada’s largest oil and gas producers, with operations heavily concentrated in high-emission oil sands extraction and upgrading. Its greenhouse gas emissions intensity is among the highest in the global oil and gas sector, reflecting the carbon-intensive nature of its core business.

The company has a documented pattern of regulatory failures related to emissions reporting and control. In July 2024, the Alberta Energy Regulator fined CNRL for an environmental violation after a 2022 incident involving the release of a hazardous substance. More significantly, in December 2024, environmental and health groups alleged that over 500 of CNRL’s oil and gas facilities in Alberta—more than 17 percent of certain facility types—had failed to report dangerous air pollutant emissions as required, calling for an official investigation. This followed a 2016 penalty for exceeding sulphur dioxide emission limits. The repeated failures in emissions monitoring and reporting indicate a systematic weakness in environmental governance.

Canadian Natural Resources Limited has a documented pattern of environmental incidents and regulatory violations stemming from its oil and gas operations. In July 2024, the Alberta Energy Regulator fined CNRL for failing to prevent a hazardous substance from contaminating the environment over a period of several months in 2022. This follows a 2015 conviction and $125,000 penalty for a separate spill incident in Alberta.

A significant ongoing issue involves the company's management of aging infrastructure. As of July 2025, CNRL was found to have violated an agreement with British Columbia's energy regulator to address thousands of inactive pipelines, leaving them in the ground without proper deactivation. Furthermore, federal authorities have launched an investigation into a series of subsurface spills at CNRL sites, one of which had released over 1.2 million litres of contaminated material, prompting concerns from environmental and health professionals about groundwater contamination and public health risks.