By OGJ editors
HOUSTON, Aug. 12 -- Alberta's Energy and Utilities Board ("EUB") and the Alberta legislature have given 50:50 joint-venture partners Nexen Inc., Calgary, and OPTI Canada Inc. approval to proceed with the $3 billion Long Lake oil sands project in Alberta. Long Lake, 40 km southeast of Fort McMurray in northern Alberta, combines steam-assisted gravity drainage (SAGD) with on site upgrading.
In the first phase of the project, the JV will produce and upgrade 70,000 b/d of 8° gravity SAGD bitumen to a 60,000-b/d stream of oil, integrated with an upgrading facility, using the OPTI Canada patented "OrCrude" upgrading technology, combined with commercially available hydrocracking and gasification.
OrCrude produces an asphaltene byproduct that will be fed to an asphaltene gasification system that produces hydrogen for the hydrocracker and a syngas that fuels the SAGD steam generators, according to OPTI Canada (OGJ, Dec. 9, 2002, p.39). OPTI is a unit of the Israeli-US engineering and manufacturing firm Ormat Industries Ltd. Nexen said the end product would be a 38° gravity synthetic crude with low sulfur content.
The JV plans to start production in 2006, with the upgrader commencing operation in 2007.
Nexen said the Long Lake lease has a long reserve life and has ample capacity to expand beyond this first phase of the project.
