By the OGJ Online Staff
CALGARY, May 1 -- Syncrude Canada Ltd., a 10-member joint venture, is budgeting a record $900 million (Can.) for capital investment in 2001.
Most of this will be dedicated to engineering design work and procurement-fabrication work for Stage 3 of the Syncrude 21 expansion program.
Syncrude will be seeking approval from its owners by July for this $4 billion expansion project. It will be the largest of four expansion stages, including a major expansion of Syncrude's Mildred Lake upgrader and a second production train at the Aurora mine (OGJ Online, Aug. 17, 2000).
The program will add 100,000 b/d of crude production capacity to the Syncrude operation.
Syncrude reports it produced 74.2 million bbl of synthetic crude in 2000 at its northern Alberta oil sands plant, with pro forma revenue of $3.3 billion (Can.), net cash flow of $865 million, and a return on capital of 23.9%.
The consortium said more plant maintenance was completed in 2000 than in any other year in recent history. This included maintenance turnarounds on both cokers, and the most extensive bitumen extraction turnaround ever.
Syncrude said during 2000, the Syncrude 21 expansion project was moved forward with completion of the new Aurora mine and the Composite Tails project. The Composite Tails project is a technology enabling transformation of retired mines into new solid landforms.