By OGJ editors
HOUSTON, June 1 -- Because of delays caused by the forest fires in northern Alberta, Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. has revised its plans for restarting the Horizon oil sands upgrader that was damaged in a fire on Jan. 6 (OGJ Online, Feb. 21, 2011).
Currently CNRL plans to mobilize workers back to the upgrader site on June 4 and now targets the commissioning of all four coke drums during the first 2-3 weeks in August.
CNRL said the revised plan will accelerate the completion of Coke Drums 1A and 1B and result in obtaining full 110,000 b/d of synthetic crude production capacity earlier than previously planned.
The company noted that the facilities are not in danger from the forest fires but workers have been evacuated from the site since May 16 because of smoke from the fires.
The estimated upgrader fire repair-rebuild costs, including associated damage, remain at $350-450 million, the company said.
The company added that it maintains an insurance program that should adequately cover repair-rebuild costs. It also has business interruption insurance to alleviate a portion of ongoing operating costs.
159458497 Aleksei Zakirov | Dreamstime.
Photo from Esso SAF.
