Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. (CNRL), Calgary, has agreed to buy the suspended Joslyn oil sands mining project in Alberta from Total SA and its partners for $100 million in cash on closing and $25 million/year for 5 years.
The Joslyn lease is 60 km north of Fort McMurray, directly south of CNRL’s Horizon oil sands mine and upgrader.
The Total group suspended Joslyn development in 2014 after crude oil prices plummeted (OGJ Online, May 30, 2014).
Until 2009, the group produced bitumen on part of the lease under a pilot steam-assisted gravity drainage project that blew steam through caprock in May 2006.
The pilot tested the shallowest SAGD wells in Alberta. Some of its horizontal steam-injection wells were less than 100 m deep.
Joslyn project partners are Total, 38.25%; Suncor Energy Joslyn Partnership, 36.75%; Joslyn Partnership, 15%; and Inpex Canada Ltd., 10%.
CNRL’s Horizon mine and upgrader produced an average of 170,100 b/d of synthetic crude oil last year. After completion of a third phase late in the year, output rose to an average 247,000 b/d during December 2017-February 2018.