Shell to restart one oil sands unit this month
Fri Dec 7, 2007 4:05pm GMT
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CALGARY, Alberta, Dec 7 (Reuters) - Royal Dutch Shell Plc (RDSa.L: Quote, Profile, Research) plans to restart one of two production trains at its Scotford oil sands upgrading plant in Alberta this month, restoring about half the facility's output, a company spokesman said on Friday.
It is not known when the other unit at the 155,000 barrel a day facility, which was damaged in a Nov. 19 fire, will restart, Shell's Randy Provencal said. The fire singed a residue hydroconversion unit.
The Edmonton-area plant, which turns bitumen from Shell's oil sands mine in northern Alberta into refinery-ready light crude, has been idled since the incident.
Provencal said he did not have an exact date in December when the undamaged residue hydroconversion unit will be running again.
"The anticipation is that it will be operational this month, with a ramp-up of associated production," he said.
Meanwhile, Shell's adjacent 98,000 barrel a day refinery is now running at full volume on purchased feedstock, he said.
"That was a slow ramp-up but we wanted to make sure we brought production up as safely as possible," he said.
During the upgrader repairs, the mine that feeds the plant has been undergoing maintenance that had initially been scheduled for next year.
Provencal said it was not yet known how the shutdown of another firm's upgrading unit -- a coker at Syncrude Canada Ltd. -- might impact Shell's ability to buy feedstock.
Syncrude said on Friday that its Coker 8-3, which itself was damaged in a fire this week, could be offline for as long as four weeks.
The Scotford upgrader is part of the Athabasca Oil Sands Project, as is the Muskeg River Mine near Fort McMurray, Alberta. Shell has a 60 percent stake in the venture and its partners are Chevron Corp (CVX.N: Quote, Profile, Research) and Marathon Oil Corp (MRO.N: Quote, Profile, Research), which have 20 percent each.
Shell is the sole owner of the refinery. (Reporting by Jeffrey Jones; Editing by Peter Galloway)