Houston, 7 July 2009 (Argus) Canada’s Syncrude joint venture produced 257,600 b/d in June, up by 33pc from May after an extended coker turnaround hampered output in the earlier month.
The turnaround of Coker 8-3 at Syncrude’s 375,000 b/d Mildred Lake upgrading site was completed on 9 June, 20 days later than anticipated, project operator Canadian Oil Sands Trust (COS) said.
For the year, the consortium has averaged 239,600 b/d of output, 20pc below its daily output goal of 298,000 b/d.
As a result, Canadian Oil Sands believes it will be more challenging to achieve the mid point of its production guidance for Syncrude production in 2009 of 109mn bl, COS said. Syncrude’s 109mn bl forecast was already a 5.2pc reduction from its outlook at the beginning of the year of 115mn bl.
COS will update its Syncrude production outlook for a second time this year when it releases second quarter results on 27 July, it said. Along with COS, the Syncrude partners include Imperial Oil, Petro-Canada, ConocoPhillips, Nexen, Murphy Oil and Mocal Energy.