Canada's biggest oilsands producers say they will spend $16.5 billion before 2030 on the first stage of a massive proposed carbon capture and storage facility near Cold Lake, Alta.

The Pathways Alliance, a consortium of the country's six largest oilsands companies, says preliminary work on the proposed project is well underway.

The group has not yet made a decision to go ahead with the project, which would capture CO2 emissions from more than 20 oilsands facilities in northern Alberta and store them safely underground, delivering an estimated 10 million tonnes of emissions reductions per year.

But it says it has already completed pre-engineering work and is consulting with Indigenous communities along the route of the proposed 400-km pipeline that will carry captured CO2 to the storage hub.

The Pathways group also says it is also in talks with the federal and provincial government and will begin construction once "the necessary financial and regulatory conditions are in place."

Oilsands companies have earned record profits in 2022 due to sky-high oil prices. Critics say companies should be using the windfall to move faster on decarbonization projects.