The Coker 8-3 has restarted.
Syncrude restarts coker after fire
By Upstream staff
Syncrude Canada has restarted its 100,000 barrel-per-day Coker 8-3 after it was shut down to repair damages from a 5 December fire.
A spokeswoman for Canadian Oil Sands Trust, which holds the biggest interest in the Syncrude oil sands joint venture, told Reuters today that bitumen was being fed into the unit and it was producing some synthetic crude, but she declined to specify its current output.
A coker plays a key role in converting bitumen mined from the oil sands into refinery-ready synthetic crude. Syncrude Coker 8-3, the newest of the project’s three cokers, was shut down earlier this month to fix damage after a fire in its electrostatic precipitator unit.
Syncrude is Canada’s biggest oil sands producer, with a nominal capacity of 350,000 barrels per day. However output was likely cut to about 290,000 bpd while repairs took place.
The trust owns a 37% stake in Syncrude’s Fort McMurray, Alberta mine and upgrading operations.
Its partners include Canada’s Imperial Oil, Petro-Canada and Nexen, US supermajor ConocoPhillips, Nippon Oil unit Mocal Energy and US producer Murphy Oil.
18 December 2007 23:17 GMT | last updated: 18 December 2007 23:17 GMT
