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Projects include the development of facilities to reclaim mine tailings

30/11/2012

Canadian Oil Sands invests in Syncrude

C$1.3bn to be spent on major infrastructure projects

Helen Tunnicliffe

CANADIAN Oil Sands (COS) is to invest C$1.3bn (US$1.3bn) in Syncrude, one of Canada’s largest producers of crude oil from oil sands, in which it has a 36.47% interest.

The money will support Syncrude’s ongoing major capital projects programme, which is due to be completed in 2014. C$836m will go towards these major projects, which includes the relocation and replacement of mining infrastructure, such as the mine trains (the process systems for separating out the crude oil) at the Aurora and Mildred Lake mines. It also includes the development of facilities to reclaim mine tailings, such as the Aurora North tailings management where fine tailings are mixed with gypsum and coarse tailings sand to solidify it and make it suitable for reclamation. Around C$393m will go towards ongoing maintenance of facilities.

COS has also developed eight objectives as part of its 2013 budget, such as increasing production by 3%, achieving 90% completion of the Aurora mine train relocation, completing the Aurora North tailings management scheme, and investing C$25m in R&D to reduce operating costs, increasing reliability and improving environmental performance.

COS president and CEO Marcel Coutu says that Syncrude’s major projects are all advancing on-schedule and on-budget. Once completed, Syncrude will have the infrastructure in place “to continue to produce strong, stable volumes of fully upgraded, light crude oil for decades.”

Earlier in November, Syncrude, a joint venture which also includes Murphy Oil, Nexen and Sinopec, awarded two contracts to engineering company KBR to build a US$2bn tailings plant. The plant will employ a centrifugal process to separate the water from the solids. Water will be reused in the plant while the solids will be placed in deposits and eventually capped.