Mega-mining project before regulators

ExxonMobil offshoots — its wholly owned Canadian subsidiary and 69.6 percent owned Imperial Oil — expect to recover 4.4 billion barrels of bitumen over 50 years from their joint Alberta oil sands project, according to documents filed with regulators.

The Kearl project, due on stream at 2010, ramping up to 100,000 barrels per day by 2012, is expected to cost C$6.5 billion (US $5.4 billion).

Plans call for a second phase of 100,000 bpd by 2014, with a third train scheduled for start up in 2019, adding another 100,000 bpd.

The scheme also includes an on-site bitumen extraction facility and a co-generation power plant.

Current plans do not include an on-site upgrader to convert raw bitumen into refinery-ready crude, although that is under consideration.

The sister companies said they did not believe grassroots upgrading was economic in the 1990s because of the narrow price spread between light oil and bitumen.

However, the “large volumes” of bitumen expected to be produced from new projects, along with the prospect of severe shortages of traditional sources of diluent (used to facilitate the flow of bitumen through pipelines) in the next 10 years “could change this business environment,” they said.

If they choose not to build an upgrader in northern Alberta, the partners would move the bitumen to plants in Canada or the United States.

A 580-page application filed with the Alberta Energy and Utilities Board is targeting completion of the regulator review phase by the end of 2006.

If approval is given at that stage, detailed engineering will start, followed by site preparation in early 2007 and a final decision to fund the project in early 2008.

—Gary Park