A fire at Syncrude Canada Ltd.'s new coker unit has forced the company to cut production at its oil sands facility, the latest setback to hit both the troubled plant and output from Alberta's oil sands.
In a news release, Canadian Oil Sands Trust, the largest stakeholder in Syncrude Canada, said that a fire took place in the flue gas section of the coker late Tuesday, reducing production at the unit - responsible for up to 100,000 barrels a day of Syncrude's total production capacity of 350,000 b/d - to "minimal rates."
An investigation of the incident has begun and is likely to take several days, Canadian Oil Sands said. Details as to the extent of the reduced production and how much damage was done by the fire are currently unavailable, chief operating officer Trevor Roberts said in an interview.
The incident, which follows a fire last month at a Shell Canada Ltd. facility, is the latest in a string to affect Syncrude's new coker, which has performed erratically since being brought on-stream in May, 2006, as part of an $8.4-billion expansion of Syncrude, the largest single oil sands project.
Immediately after start-up, the coker, which processes heavy crude from the oil sands, had to be taken off line after complaints that the new unit had caused smells of "cat urine" and "bad body odour" in surrounding towns, resulting in Alberta's environment regulator ordering the company to clean up its act. The smell was caused by a malfunction in the coker's flue gas desulphurization unit, the same area that appears to have been affected by the current fire.
Syncrude has also been forced to delay the production of a higher-quality stream of crude - Syncrude Sweet Premium - until early 2008 because the company needs to make changes to the equipment expected to produce the new blend. It originally expected to produce the stream, which would fetch a higher price than Syncrude's current output, when the coker originally came on-stream.
The new incident means two of the three projects in the oil sands have upgraders off line because of fire. Last month, a sour gas leak caused a fire at Shell Canada's 155,000 b/d Scotford Upgrader, forcing a shut-down at the plant that is still in place.