Brad Corson, Imperial’s president and CEO and Simon Younger, Sr. VP of Upstream visited Cold Lake where they saw Imperials our newest plant – Nabiye. Nabiye has been producing since 2015 and will be key to its Grand Rapids project. Twitter/Imperial Oil.
CALGARY — Imperial Oil Ltd. says it has started production at its new Grand Rapids oilsands project located at its Cold Lake operating site.
The Calgary-based company, which is majority owned by U.S. giant ExxonMobil, says the project will use a mixture of steam and chemical solvents to recover the bitumen that is too deep underground to be extracted via mining.
While all of the existing facilities at Imperial’s Cold Lake oilsands operation use steam instead of mining, the Grand Rapids expansion is the first to make use of solvents as well.
The use of solvents reduces the amount of steam heat required to get the sticky, tar-like bitumen moving so that it can be extracted. Imperial estimates the process will produce 40 per cent fewer greenhouse gas emissions than the existing methods it uses at Cold Lake.
Imperial says it will ramp up production at Grand Rapids in the coming months to achieve full rates of 15,000 barrels of oil per day.
Canada’s oilsands industry is under pressure to reduce its emissions profile. While oilsands companies have been able to reduce the greenhouse gas intensity of their product per barrel through the use of technology and efficiency improvements, the industry’s overall emissions footprint is rising due to increased production.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 22, 2024.
Companies in this story: (TSX:IMO)
The Canadian Press
- 0084 EMP Metals Pipeline Online0084 EMP Metals Pipeline Online
- 0053 Kingston Midstream Westspur Alameda Click0053 Kingston Midstream Westspur Alameda Click
- 0082 CsHM 2024 Pipeline0082 CsHM 2024 Pipeline
- 0077 Caprice Resources Stand Up For Free Speech0077 Caprice Resources Stand Up For Free Speech
- 0076 Latus only0076 Latus only
- 0061 SIMSA 2024 For Sask Buy Sask0061 SIMSA 2024 For Sask Buy Sask
- 0055 Smart Power Be Smart with your Power office0055 Smart Power Be Smart with your Power office
- 0051 JML Hiring Pumpjack assembly0051 JML Hiring Pumpjack assembly
- 0049 Scotsburn Dental soft guitar0049 Scotsburn Dental soft guitar
- 0046 City of Estevan This is Estevan0046 City of Estevan This is Estevan
- 0041 DEEP Since 2018 now we are going to build0041 DEEP Since 2018 now we are going to build
- 0032 IWS Summer hiring rock trailer music
- 0022 Grimes winter hiring
- 0021 OSY Rentals S8 Promo
- 0018 IWS Hiring Royal Summer
- 0013 Panther Drilling PO ad 03 top drive rigs
- 0011
- 0006 JK Junior
- 0002 gilliss casing services0002 gilliss casing services
- 9002 Pipeline Online 30 sec EBEX9002 Pipeline Online 30 sec EBEX
- 9001