Canada`s fourth major integrated oilsands project officially opens today 40 kilometres south of Fort McMurray. Without a mine or tailings pond, the first phase of the $6.1-billion Long Lake joint venture between Opti Canada and Nexen uses steam to recover deep bitumen. It will upgrade 72,000 barrels a day and convert it into 58,500 barrels of refinery-ready premium synthetic crude when the system is fully operational in early 2010. Eventually, the project will expand to produce 360, 000 barrels a day, about the same output as major firms Syncrude and Suncor each have today. Long Lake will be the first to depend on a patented gasification technology to use asphaltene residues from the upgrading process to produce virtually all of the fuel gas required to supply the Steam Assisted Gravity Drainage wells, to power the upgrader as well as produce hydrogen to feed the hydrocracker. Conventional SAGD operations must purchase large amounts of natural gas, and upgrading operations also need to buy natural gas to produce hydrogen, necessary for the upgrading process. Long Lake will have operating costs of just $5 to $9 per barrel, a major advantage over conventional operations. Long Lake is also the first oilsands upgrading development to rely solely on underground water sources. Opti and Nexen have applied for regulatory approval for the next two phases, aiming to add 140,000 barrels a day of production. The two firms decided earlier this week to delay a decision on the second phase, blaming the world financial crisis and uncertainty over carbon emission regulations. With more than two billion barrels of recoverable oil under more than 100, 000 hectares, Long Lake has a reserve life of about 40 years.
(Edmonton Journal 081023)
(Edmonton Journal 081023)