By OGJ editors
HOUSTON, Aug. 16 -- OPTI Canada Inc. and Nexen Inc., joint venture partners in the Long Lake oil sands extraction project, 200 miles north of Edmonton, Alta., awarded Emerson Process Management, Austin, Tex., a $35 million (Can.) contract to serve as general automation contractor for the $3.4 billion (Can.) oil sands extraction project in Canada.
It will be the oil and gas industry's first combination of a steam assisted gravity drainage oil sands extraction facility that recovers and dilutes bitumen with a field upgrader that processes the bitumen into synthetic crude. The companies will commence Phase 1 in 2006 with an upgrader designed to produce 60,000 b/d of 39° gravity synthetic crude within 3 years (OGJ, June 7, 2004, p. 43).
Emerson and local partner Spartan Controls Ltd. will supply automation specific engineering, project management, commissioning, and ongoing maintenance and operations support.
