| Description |
First synthetic crude from the Athabasca oil sands region of northeastern Alberta will reach the Toledo, Ohio, refinery of Sun Oil Co. in November. It will be an excellent grade of crude - high in gravity, free of sulfur and nitrogen. But nonetheless, it will have a strange background. Instead of being pumped from a borehole in the earth, like conventional oil, this crude will be the product of strip mining and an elaborate hot-water process of separating the bitumen from the mixture of sand, shale, and clay that imprisons it. Great/Canadian Oil Sands, an affiliate of Sun Oil, has spent $235 million in the last 3 years building the facilities in Alberta's wilderness that will send this synthetic crude to commercial refining centers. This money was used to clear a big lease, set up strip mining operations, build a plant complex to extract bitumen from the oil sands, set up a pipeline to move the crude to market, construct bridges, roads, homes, and service facilities in Fort McMurray for a force of workers who will operate the plant. Since July, the plant has been operating on a test basis. Production has averaged 30,000 b/d and has reached a high of 40,000 b/d. Its rated capacity is 45,000 b/d which should be reached sometime this month. The storage tanks near the processing plant began to fill in late September which was the signal for the startup of the pipeline and movement of the synthetic crude to market. Bechtel Corp. designed, engineered and constructed the huge project. |
