Capex in oil sands heading for stratosphere, C$93.5B next 8 years

Gary Park

Petroleum News Calgary correspondent

Oil sands spending could top C$6 billion this year, but that will pale alongside the C$93.5 billion the Alberta government is projecting for the next eight years.

The province’s Economic Development Department released a study in June that forecast the mind-boggling capex budget for new and expanded projects by 2012 — a figure that dwarfs the estimated C$28 billion invested in the sector so far.

If the projections are accurate, the government said production could reach 1.8 million barrels per day of synthetic crude and 1.2 million bpd of bitumen — about triple the expected output this year. For this year, the Athabasca Regional Issues Working Group, an industry coalition, is counting on spending of C$6.1 billion, edging out last year’s C$5.5 billion and falling only slightly short of the record C$6.6 billion in 2002.

Currently, 61 projects are in the pipeline for the vast northeastern Alberta resource of 175 billion barrels.