Imperial Oil, the Canadian subsidiary of American oil and gas firm ExxonMobil, has started production at its Kearl oil sands expansion project in Alberta, Canada, before the scheduled time.

The expansion project is expected to produce around 110,000 barrels of bitumen per day, which can double the site’s overall daily capacity to 220,000 barrels.

Imperial has turned all three froth trains operational for the expansion project, which has an estimated worth of C$9bn ($7.3bn).

The original facility, worth C$13bn ($10.54bn), was operating since April 2013.

Imperial chairman and CEO Rich Kruger said: "Completed ahead of schedule, the project benefited significantly from Imperial’s ‘design-one/build multiple’ approach, ExxonMobil’s expertise in project planning and execution, strong relationships with Alberta-based contractors, and lessons learned from the Kearl initial development.

"The overall Kearl development represents the next generation of oil-sands mining.

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"Using Imperial’s proprietary paraffinic froth treatment process, we eliminated the need for an onsite upgrader, significantly reducing greenhouse-gas emissions.

"Specifically, on a well-to-wheels basis, Kearl diluted bitumen has about the same greenhouse-gas emissions footprint as the average crude refined today in the United States.

"Energy consumption has also been reduced by installing electrical cogeneration technology."

Located around 75km away to the northeast of Fort McMurray, the project also uses other environmental innovations including on-site water storage, progressive land and tailings reclamation, and a state-of-the-art waterfowl deterrent system.