By OGJ editors
HOUSTON, July 12 -- Production rates at Suncor Energy Inc.'s oil sands operation will drop to about 50% of capacity this week while the company performs repairs on a 35-year-old fractionator. A second fractionator at the site will continue to produce about 100,000 b/d.
While the malperforming unit is undergoing repairs, Suncor has moved forward some other routine maintenance to be executed during the 8-10 day downtime to improve production reliability. The company said it does not expect the plant's yearend production target of 200,000 b/d to be impacted by the partial shutdown.
In addition, fabrication of a new fractionator to replace the aging unit is about 60% complete and is expected to be operational in 2004.