How Canada’s Oil Sands Producers Pump More Crude From the Same Assets

How Canada’s Oil Sands Producers Pump More Crude from the Same Assets

Canada’s major oil sands producers are boosting crude production even if they aren’t starting up new projects. The secret sauce appears to be reducing maintenance times and extending maintenance cycles to squeeze more oil and raise efficiencies, Bloomberg reports. Suncor Energy, for example, completed ahead of schedule a multi-year effort to replace eight coke drums at its Base Plant, extending the life of the facility’s Upgrader 1 by about 30 y…

Oil Sands Producers Raise Output by Curtailing Maintenance

Canadian oil sands companies have found a way to ramp up production in the face of oil prices: curtailing lengthy repairs to equipment.