Budget, hiring rise at Northern Lights

The pace is quickening for the Northern Lights oil sands project, 60 percent owned by start-up Synenco Energy and 40 percent by a subsidiary of China’s Sinopec.

Synenco’s spending on the undertaking is budgeted at C$197 million for 2006, compared with C$108 million in 2005 and C$9.37 million in 2004.

The company has permission to drill 420 holes this year, although the final count will depend on several factors, including weather.

Synenco expects to hire or retain about 150 staff, most of whom will be assigned to Northern Lights.

Independent consultant Norwest and Synenco’s own independent resource evaluator have put a “best” estimate on discovered resources of 1.5 billion barrels of in-place bitumen, of which Synenco considers 1.2 billion barrels to be recoverable.

The total capital cost of Northern Lights is forecast at C$5.3 billion to produce 100,000 barrels per day of light, sweet synthetic crude, with the first output scheduled for 2010.

—Gary Park