Thursday, May 23, 2013

CNRL's Horizon expansion under budget (so far)

The Horizon mine today, picture stolen from CNRL homepage.
Here's an article about the progress on CNRL's Horizon mine expansion. On the upgrade from 110,000 to 250,000 barrels per day, they say they're now 20% done and 10% under budget. Doesn't say if the expansion is on schedule (although CNRL's Kirby SAGD project is apparently ahead of schedule). Ultimately they say they're going to increase the mine size to 500,000 barrels per day, although don't provide a timeline or anything on how they intend to do so, as far as I can see.

Tuesday, May 14, 2013

Algae to reduce oilsands emissions?

Some bioreactors. Picture stolen from the Pond Biofuels
homepage.
Here's an interesting article about a pilot plant being made by CNRL and Pond Biofuels. Basically it appears they want to use CO2 produced in oilsands facilities to grow algae, which can then be used as animal feed, biofuel or fertilizer. The $19 million facility will be built at CNRL's Primrose South site near Bonnyville

Clearly early days on this, but might turn out to be something important.