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StatoilHydro Scuttles Plans for Bitumen Upgrader
5 December 2008
StatoilHydro has become the latest company to scale-down or postpone investments in Canada’s oilsands. Citing prohibitive construction costs, the state of the global economy, an uncertain oil price outlook and lack of legislative clarity, the company withdrawn its regulatory application for the development and construction of a bitumen upgrader.
This decision does not impact the progress of StatoilHydro’s upstream oil sands activities. StatoilHydro’s long term view of the Canadian oil sands development remains unchanged. The construction of our Leismer SAGD project is progressing according to plan with startup late 2010.
—Geir Jøssang, StatoilHydro Canada President
In May 2008, StatoilHydro decided to postpone the planned upgrader by two years to 2016. Since then, various alternatives for the project have been evaluated. In line with several other players in the Canadian oil sands industry, StatoilHydro has decided to discontinue the $4-billion upgrader project at this time, but will continue to monitor the cost and price environment and reassess downstream options going forward. The upgrader was intended to process the bitumen from oil sands into a synthetic crude oil.
According to the Globe and Mail, the total value of stalled or halted upgraders in the oil sands industry is at least $45-billion.
StatoilHydro said that its decision does not impact the upstream part of the company’s oil sands venture. The production from the project will be marketed as unprocessed bitumen, an increasing amount of which is being upgraded in the US.
The planning of the next phases following the Leismer 20 000 barrels per day demonstration plant continues. As the sole owner of the project, StatoilHydro retains both flexibility and optionality with regards to timing and investments in future phases.
December 5, 2008 in Brief | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBack (0)
Comments
Posted by: Max Reid | December 05, 2008 at 05:47 AM
Oil refineries input 123 units of crude oil for every 100 units of product that is delivered. But it is not widely known how much is left in the ground, and there are many processes to recover a higher percentage. Pumping liquid CO2 into the wells seems to keep production high.
It is interesting that the Norwegian state oil company has operations in the tar sands and not only in the north sea. ..HG..
Posted by: Henry Gibson | December 05, 2008 at 11:53 PM
The reduction of Alberta's oil sands pollution project is a good idea, no matter what forces are involved.
Posted by: John Taylor | December 07, 2008 at 06:22 PM
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They should clarify the Input / Output ratio like how much energy they should input to get a 100 units of output.
For ex - in Cane based Ethanol, we have to input 40 units of energy (for heat, electricity and diesel) to get 100 units of output and in the case of Corn, its 80 : 100.
If oilsands have an input / output ratio of 20:100, then its ok, if it comes to 80:100, then not much worth.