July 2006 ISSUE
doing business
Syncrude Canada Officially Opens Expansion
BY NORDAHL FLAKSTAD
Freelance Writer
Syncrude Canada Ltd. has officially completed its UE1 expansion, which will increase capacity of its Fort McMurray complex by 100,000 barrels or 50 per cent per day, to 350,000 bbl/d. The expansion cost $8.4 billion and took five years to build, with construction staff peaking at 6,500.
The UE1 upgrader expansion includes new froth treatment and diluent recovery units, as well as a fluid coker, a distillate hydroprocesser, a hydrogen plant, a sulphur plant, an amine plant and a sour water treater.
Meanwhile, as a precautionary measure and following complaints of odour associated with the new 8-3 coker, which is part of the expansion, Alberta Environment directed Syncrude to shut down its new flue-gas desulphurization unit and attached equipment at the Mildred Lake plant. It resulted in about 80,000 bbl/d of foregone production. The necessary repairs are expected to take one or two months.
NAIT Plans Ambitious Expansion
NAIT will spend $750 million over the next decade to turn the Edmonton institution
into the country’s largest technical school — and one of the largest
of its kind in North America.
The expansion will see enrolment increase to 95,000 from 65,000 and will involve developing a new campus twice the size of the current main site next to City Centre Airport. Although the exact site hasn’t been determined, the new campus will be built on eight hectares on the south side.
Over the next 25 to 30 years, the expansion will allow instruction — which is now spread over eight NAIT locations throughout Edmonton — to be consolidated at the main and new campuses.
Expansion plans include a $115-million health and fitness centre planned for the main campus, with a possible completion in 2009.
Wood Buffalo Seeks
AEUB Standing
Municipalities are usually pro-development, but in a statement on the times,
Wood Buffalo Regional Municipality — home to the infrastructure-challenged
Fort McMurray — will seek intervener standing for a project hearing. The
Alberta Energy Utilities Board will hold hearings on a planned Suncor
Energy Inc. $5.9-billion oil sands expansion.
With its municipality infrastructure under severe strain, Wood Buffalo Council wants provincial money and more evenly paced oil sands development.
Husky Energy Makes
N.W.T. Gas Discovery
Husky Energy Ltd. has announced a major natural gas discovery
in the Northwest Territories. Located in the Mackenzie Valley about 11 km south
of Norman Wells, the well flowed over five million cubic feet of gas during a
production test.
Along with partners Northrock Resources, EOG Resources Canada Inc., Pacific Rodera Energy Inc. and International Frontier Resources Corp., Husky also acquired additional exploration prospects in a recent federal Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development auction.
Costs for Interchange
In Edmonton Keep Ramping Up
Alberta’s white-hot economy will leave its mark on the City of
Edmonton. A major interchange in Edmonton’s south side could emerge
as one of the most costly single transportation projects in the city’s
history.
Earlier estimates placed the cost for the interchange at 23rd Avenue and Gateway Boulevard at $75 million. Now, estimates are as high as $150 million.
City council still supports the project, despite a possible doubling of its cost over the last three years. Among causes are high energy prices and shortages of skilled labour, as well as concrete and other materials.
The City of Edmonton retained Team ISL for the preliminary design, detailed design and construction administration of the project, which is intended to improve traffic flows at an intersection now handling some 100,000 vehicles a day.
Wind Power Soon to Double
The Alberta Electric System Operator expects
wind-power generating capacity to almost double in the province over the next
18 months. Facilities now being built will add 244 MW by the end of 2007. This
comes on top of the province’s current 297 MW of wind-powered generating
capacity.
Because of its fluctating supply, Kevin Willerton, P.Eng., the operator’s market service director, said that even with future expansion, wind-based electrical power will likely meet less than 10 per cent of provincial demand.
Highway 16 Work
Part of Busy Season
The Alberta Government will invest more than $12 million this summer to upgrade
sections of Highway 16 near Hinton and Edson, including 39 km of new pavement,
intersection improvements and two new safety rest areas.
It’s part of a busy line-up of work planned through Alberta Infrastructure and Transportation. A record $1.1 billion will be spent this year to build, repair and maintain the province’s highway network. The 2006-07 investment marks an increase of about $300 million or 37 per cent from last year.
Construction highlights for the 2006 season include
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Paving more than 1,000 km, including 250 km of new paved road; twinning 20 km; repair and rehabilitation of 425 km; and widening 100 km
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Completing five interchanges and starting two others
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Chip seal coating 500 km
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Grading 100 km.
Huge Rise In
CBM Now Accessible
From 11 trillion to 45 trillion cubic feet of Canadian coalbed methane is marketable,
says the Canadian Gas
Potential Committee.
The 50-member blue-ribbon committee, headed by former Alberta Energy and Utilities Board chairman Gerry DeSorcy, P.Eng., releases its gas-potential assessment every five years. The latest assessment contrasts dramatically with the committee’s 2001 evaluation, which identified no marketable Alberta coalbed methane.
Vic Mroszczak, P.Geol., committee coordinator, says 26 trillion cubic feet of the total noted this year is likely to be used. That equates to 4.3 billion barrels of conventional oil or triple the 1.6 billion barrels still available in Alberta, based on AEUB assessments.
TransCanada Looks At
Gas Line Conversion
As a component of the $2.1-billion Keystone Oil Pipeline Project, TransCanada
PipeLines Ltd. wants to change the use of part of its main Canadian
pipeline to crude oil from natural gas. With TransCanada Keystone Pipeline GP
Ltd., the company has applied to the National Energy Board to transfer 860 kilometres
of the mainline to the project.
EPCOR Opens
Treatment Plant on West Coast
EPCOR and the British Columbia Government have opened the Britannia
Mine Water Treatment Facility at Britannia Beach. The project is near the Sea-to-Sky
Highway, which leads to Whistler.
The Britannia Mine site on Howe Sound, 55 km north of Vancouver, represented one of North America’s largest sources of heavy metal pollution. The new facility treats an average of 12 million litres of water per day, removing heavy metals such as aluminium, cadmium, copper, iron, manganese and zinc.
The design and construction team for the new $15.5-million facility included Stantec, Lockerbie Stanley Inc., Canadian Environmental and Metallurgical Inc., and BioteQ. As part of the agreement, EPCOR will operate the facility for 20 years.
“EPCOR is applying 100 years of water treatment expertise to the Britannia Water Treatment Plant, and our expertise at working with public and private partners,” said Dr. Steve Stanley, P.Eng., EPCOR senior vice-president of water services.
Imperial and Shell
Low Sulphur Plants
Up and Running
Imperial Oil Ltd. has completed a $250-million refurbishment
of its Strathcona refinery east of Edmonton, allowing production of 6.4 million
litres a day of ultra-low-sulphur diesel fuel. The overhaul, which allows output
from the plant to meet new federal sulphur-emission standards, has employed some
2,100 workers over a two-year period.
The opening follows the May completion of a low-sulphur renovation by Shell Canada at its Scotford plant, near Fort Saskatchewan.
In another development, Shell has unveiled plans to transform its Waterton gas plant, south of Pincher Creek, into a smaller, more efficient facility. Construction for this optimization project will start in late 2006, pending regulatory approval, and is expected to finish in late 2007.
Jacobs Engineering is looking after front-end engineering design. The company will also be involved with detailed engineering and construction.
Enbridge to Build
East-to-West Diluent Line
Enbridge Inc. will spend $1 billion developing the Southern
Lights Pipeline, which will entail a combination of new construction, changes
to Enbridge’s existing crude oil pipeline system, and the use of existing
facilities.
Southern Lights would follow Enbridge’s existing right-of way between Edmonton and Chicago, and would be designed to carry diluent westward from Midwest refineries for use in Alberta bitumen developments.
Learning Centre in Edmonton
PCL has marked its 100th anniversary by officially opening its
Centennial Learning Centre at the PCL Business Park in Edmonton.
The building, which is eligible for silver certification under the LEED Green Building rating system, is the flagship anniversary project to mark the contracting organization’s centennial. Its primary function is professional development and learning.
The PCL family of companies is the largest contracting organization in Canada and the 10th largest in the United States.
Forest Output Value Declines
The value of Alberta forest products declined in first three months of 2006 to
$860.2 million. That’s down $155.4 million from the same period in 2005,
and down $205 million from last quarter of 2004.
The Alberta Forest Products Association says causes for the decline include the
rising Canadian dollar, as well as slowing demand and lower prices for dimensional
lumber and panelboard products.
Said Neil Shelly, P.Eng., the association’s executive
director: “We are back to the value environment of 2002-2003, but we are
now faced with a 90-plus-cent Canadian dollar, whereas back then it was in the
mid-60s.”
Hydro Project Ready
For Regulatory Review
Glacier Power Ltd., a subsidiary of Canadian Hydro Developers,
is seeking approval to build a 100-MW, run-of-the-river hydro generating facility
on the Peace River at Dunvegan.
The Calgary-based proponent expects both the Alberta Energy Utilities Board and the National Energy Board to review the $340-million proposal.
Regulators turned down a similar proposal three years ago. The revised version calls for a 400-metre fish weir and measures to offset flooding. Plans also call for 40, 2.5-MW turbines and a 144-KV line linked to ATCO’s mainline.
“We are certain we will get approval next years said Canadian Hydro President Ross Keating, P.Eng.