use SAGD. Imperial Oil actually patented To upgrade or not to upgrade. A similar Heartland. BA Energy, which isn’t
SAGD in 1987 and held the patent on it value-adding dilemma has faced other planning its own oil sands production,
for 15 years. It was invented by retired Canadian industries for years, with nonetheless, expects high demand for
employee Roger Butler who died last proponents of value-adding increasingly upgrading from oil sands producers in
year. But SAGD simply wouldn’t work in winning the day. Raw bitumen would the coming year. The first phase is
the Cold Lake reservoir,” says Pius J. certainly find markets in Asia, but with a scheduled for start-up in early 2008,
Rolheiser, spokeman, Imperial Oil. lot of money left on the table—money processing about 77,500 barrels per day
that a growing number of companies of bitumen into synthetic oil. Subsequent
In 2004, Imperial Oil received approval want to capture. BA Energy’s $900-million construction phases are planned to
to further expansion of its Cold Lake upgrader plan was approved by its board increase throughput to about 250,000
facility along two prongs: one is for a of directors in early 2006, giving the barrels per day.
new area, which would involve building privately held company the go-ahead to
another major steam generation and build the first phase of its new Heartland BA Energy president Raymond Cej told
bitumen processing plant; the other is Upgrader in Alberta’s Industrial reporters earlier this year that his
an extension of its existing
development.
“We are proceeding with drilling wells in
this extension area over the next several
years. We expect to see what I would
characterize as a modest production
gain,” Rolheiser says. “We’re also working
on a capacity enhancement opportunity
to optimize our existing three major
steam plants and get the maximum
output in the spirit of making the most
of what we have rather than building
new facilities.” Expansions 14, 15 and 16
will eventually be built, according to
Rolheiser, but at the present time, he
says there is as much incremental
production to be gained by optimizing.
The company doesn’t have an upgrader
and sells some of its production (less
than 10,000 barrels per day) to the Husky
upgrader in Lloydminster. The primary
market for two-thirds of its Cold Lake
production goes to high-conversion
refineries in the Chicago area.
“We blend it with a lighter hydrocarbon
diluent and ship it by the Enbridge
pipeline mostly through Hardisty,”
he says.
Imperial Oil also has a 25 per cent stake
in Syncrude and will benefit from its
current expansions. It is also currently
working through the regulatory process
for an open-pit mining operation at
Kearl Lake. Assuming a positive decision
to construct, it would see 100,000
barrels per day by 2010.
“Kearl is one of the highest quality
resources that’s left to be developed in
the Athabasca region,” Rolheiser says.
“Our base design at Kearl is with no
upgrader. We’re planning to bring at
least the first 100,000 barrels per day to
markets as raw or blended bitumen, very
similar to what we ship from Cold Lake.
Beyond that, we have not made
decisions on upgrading yet.”
