Suncor Energy has commenced production at the Fort Hills project located around 90km north of Fort McMurray, Canada.
The company will continue to ramp up production at Fort Hills in an effort to reach 90% capacity by the end of this year.
The project has a capacity of about 194,000 barrels per day (bblspd), of which Suncor has claims to around 103,000bblspd.
Having brought the first of three trains from secondary extraction online, the company intends to ramp up production on the train through the first quarter.
Suncor Energy president and CEO Steve Williams said: “With operations at Fort Hills now in continuous production, we’ve brought one of the best long-term growth projects in our industry into service and we’re now focused on the safe and steady ramp up through 2018.”
The Fort Hills project, a joint venture between Suncor, Total E&P Canada and Teck Resources, was given the go-ahead by the partners in 2013.
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By GlobalDataThe second and third trains of secondary extraction are scheduled to start up in the first half of this year.
Suncor operates the project with a 53.06% interest, while Total and Teck Resources own 26.05% and 20.89%, respectively.
The bitumen production from Fort Hills is blended for shipment to market at the East Tank Farm Development, which is a JV between Fort McKay First Nation, Mikisew Cree First Nation and Suncor.