Shell Canada - Scotford Upgrader

 oil refinery, oilsand upgrader

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Owned jointly by Shell Canada (60%), Chevron Canada (20%) and Marathon Oil (20%) and operated by Shell Canada, this is an upgrader facility, where bitumen from the Athabasca Oil Sands is upgraded to synthetic crude oil. It currently processes 155,000 barrels of bitumen per day into 100,000 barrels of crude, which is then refined at Shell Canada's adjoining Scotford Refinery.

Scotford Expansion 1 is underway and will nearly double Scotford's upgrading capacity to 255,000 barrels per day. In addition, a debottlenecking study has identified the potential to add a further 85,000 barrels per day of production through process efficiencies--close to the equivalent of a new expansion without having to build a full new line!

An further expansion project, called Scotford 2, was to be a complete second facility to be built next to Scotford. Planned to be built in 4 phases, Scotford 2 would have added another 400,000 barrels of bitumen processing capacity a day. However, in January 2010 Shell indicated it is putting new oil sands projects on hold while it focuses on building conventional oil reserves elsewhere, due to the high costs of construction and operation in the Oil Sands.

Shell is considering a major carbon capture and storage (CCS) project for Scotford. Called Quest, the project would capture one million tonnes of CO2 produced annually by the plant's hydrogen manufacturing unit and store it in deep underground geologic formations nearby.

For info about the upgrader, see: www.shell.ca/home/content/can-en/aboutshell/our_busines...