Imperial Oil Ltd., the Canadian affiliate of Exxon Mobil Corp., has unveiled plans for a CAD $2-billion oil sands project that it says will harness new technology to cut costs and lower carbon emissions. Imperial recently announced that it has filed an application with the Alberta Energy Regulator for a new steam-driven oil sands plant located near its existing operations in Cold Lake, Alberta.
The project would pump about 50,000 barrels of bitumen per day from the Grand Rapids area. Construction could start as early as 2019, with first oil in 2022, assuming timely regulatory approvals and “favourable” market conditions.
The new steam-driven plant would mark the first major commercial test for a technology touted by executives as a tool for curbing the industry’s emissions of planet-warming greenhouse gases, while at the same time lowering overall development costs. The technique involves mixing solvents – butane, condensate and other petroleum liquids – with steam at well sites, lowering the amount of energy it takes to loosen underground seams of bitumen buried too deep to mine.