Fort Hills files plan for heavy oil upgrader

Dec. 8, 2006
Petro-Canada Oil Sands Inc. filed an application with the Alberta Energy and Utilities Board for the construction and operation of a heavy oil upgrader 40 km northeast of Edmonton, Alta.


By OGJ editors
HOUSTON, Dec. 8 -- Petro-Canada Oil Sands Inc., on behalf of Fort Hills Energy LP, filed an application with the Alberta Energy and Utilities Board for the construction and operation of a heavy oil upgrader in Sturgeon County, about 40 km northeast of Edmonton, Alta. (OGJ, Feb. 13, 2006, Newsletter).

The upgrader is expected eventually to process as much as 340,000 b/d of bitumen from the Fort Hills mine and other production sources into as much as 280,000 b/d of synthetic crude oil.

The Fort Hills mine, which obtained regulatory approval in 2002 for as much as 190,000 b/d of bitumen production, is about 90 km north of Fort McMurray, Alta. Production is planned to start in 2011.

Fort Hills Energy partners are Petro-Canada, Calgary, 55%; UTS Energy Corp., Calgary, 30%; and mining company Teck Cominco Ltd., Vancouver, BC, 15%. Petro-Canada Oil Sands serves as the project's contract operator.