Ikelic - Alliance Digital Repository

OIL SANDS
groups prior to the filing of the application and
continued up to (and in some cases, during) the
hearing.
Syncrude filed the first volume of its application
with the Board in September 1992. Syncrude's
application was considered by a division of the
Board (the panel) at a public hearing in Fort
McMurray, Alberta commencing on
September 8, 1993. At the outset of the hearing
a motion to adjourn was made by the Fort McKay
First Nation and SEAC. Arguments on the
Board's jurisdiction to hear Syncrude's applica
tion were heard by the Court on March 3, 1994,
and the Court confirmed the Board's jurisdiction
to proceed with the hearing.
Production Capability
The most recent application proposes to use the
existing facilities to increase SCO production to a
maximum of 12.6 million cubic meters per year
(the staged development). This increase is
separate from the previously
approved expan
sion project. By undertaking that project,
Syncrude could further increase production by
up to another 5.0 million m3/yr.
To achieve the 12.6 million m3/yr level of SCO
production, Syncrude proposed two operating
modes for its bitumen upgrading facilities which it
referred to as the "Base"
and "Once-through"
modes. The Base mode would achieve higher
production by improving service factors and in
feedrates to the cokers and
creasing
hydrocracker. The Once-through mode would
also incorporate a higher SCO yield in addition to
the foregoing
improvements. To achieve this
maximum level of production would require
hydrocracking feedrates significantly higher than
service factors
the original design and upgrading
of 100.0 percent. Service factors this high would
only
be achieved in years that do not require
scheduled maintenance shutdowns. Syncrude
expected that typical years would see service fac
tors in the 95.0 percent range which would be suf
ficient to sustain SCO production near the
12.0 million m3/yr level.
3-3
Expansion Project Design
In 1988, Syncrude received Board approval for
an expansion project that would increase SCO
production by 5.0 million m3/yr beyond the ap
proved limit of 10.0 million m3/yr. The approval
was conditional on the construction for the
project commencing by December 31, 1992.
The expansion project design was based on:
- Truck-and-shovel
- Expanded
mining and warm
slurry
production
extraction for incremental bitumen
catalyst bed hydrocracking
for the incremental bitumen conversion
(primary upgrading) capacity
In its most recent application, Syncrude
proposed to modify its original design to include
the hydraulic transport (hydrotransport) of oil
sand which it believed was an improvement over
the original design.
The original expansion project approval was
based on a maximum level of SCO production
after expansion of 15.0 million m3/yr. Syncrude
requested that the approved SCO production
limit now be amended to specify 17.6 million
m3/yr to reflect the full capability of the expan
sion project when added to the requested new
limit of 12.6 million m3/yr for the existing
facilities. The specific capacity
of the expansion
project could ultimately be anywhere from 14.5
to a maximum of 17.6 million nrr/yr.
Syncrude also applied for a 5-year extension (to
December 1997) to the date by which construc
tion of the expansion project must proceed. It
argued that the business climate, to this point in
time, had not favored proceeding with a major
expansion and current conditions continued to
remain unfavorable.
Bitumen Supply
Syncrude's bitumen production forecasts con
tained in the application were based on a
THE SYNTHETIC FUELS REPORT, JANUARY 1995