Production from the Syncrude Canada Ltd. oil sands venture in northeastern Alberta will drop in the first quarter due to planned maintenance to address a bottleneck in operations, its biggest owner said.
Moving a planned turnaround at the facility to March 15 from April will reduce Suncor Energy Inc.'s share of synthetic crude oil from Syncrude to an average of about 140,000 barrels daily in the first quarter. Suncor's net Syncrude production averaged 142,100 bbl/d in the first quarter of 2017. Syncrude's forecast for full-year production will be within its annual guidance range, Suncor said.
The timing of the turnaround was advanced to resolve an issue on a line that feeds tar-like bitumen from Syncrude's open pit mine to an upgrader, which processes it into refinery-ready crude. Suncor said in a March 14 statement the problem has restrained capacity at the Syncrude facility and doing repairs while the plant is shut for the turnaround will minimize the impact on overall production. The facility is located near Fort McMurray, Alberta.
Suncor holds about 54% of the Syncrude venture and plans to acquire another 5% from Japan's Mocal Energy Ltd.. Exxon Mobil Corp.'s Canadian unit Imperial Oil Ltd. holds 25% of the partnership and is the operator of the Syncrude facility. China Petroleum & Chemical Corp. and China National Offshore Oil Corp. (CNOOC) control the rest through Canadian subsidiaries.
Calgary, Alberta-based Suncor also said its share of production from the recently commissioned Fort Hills oil sands project, which it owns with Teck Resources Ltd. and Total SA, would average about 25,000 bbl/d in the first quarter. Suncor said the ramp-up of the project is progressing well after the start of a secondary extraction train in January. Suncor forecast its overall crude production in the first quarter at approximately 685,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day.
