By OGJ editors
HOUSTON, Nov. 8 -- Deer Creek Energy Ltd., a recent subsidiary of Total SA, has started the commercial production phase of the Joslyn project in the Athabasca region, 60 km northwest of Fort McMurray, Alta. Deer Creek is an 84% interest owner and operator of the Joslyn lease.
This will be the first commercial production from Joslyn, for which cumulative production is estimated at around 2 billion bbl of bitumen.
The lease will be produced using both steam-assisted gravity drainage (SAGD) and oil sands surface mining technologies. The Joslyn SAGD development will bring production to 10,000 b/d of bitumen at plateau. After dilution, the bitumen will be shipped to a terminal on the Athabasca Pipeline.
Mining developments are planned for the first part of the next decade. An application for the first 100,000 b/d of bitumen via surface mining was submitted to regulatory agencies in February and currently is undergoing review.
Total also has a 50% working interest in the Surmont SAGD project, which is expected to begin production from its first commercial phase in early 2007 and reach plateau production of 27,000 b/d. The potential production from Surmont is more than 200,000 b/d.
Total's share of the aggregate production from Surmont and Joslyn should reach nearly 300,000 b/d in the next decade.
