EnCana Corporation Set to Fire-Up a New 80 MW Cogen at Foster Creek

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Researched by Industrialinfo.com (Industrial Information Resources, Incorporated; Houston, Texas). EnCana Corporation (TSE:ECA/NYSE:ECA) (Calgary Alberta) is set to begin firing-up its new 80 MW cogeneration plant located at its Foster Creek crude oil property. Initial firing will begin on February 7th 2003.

The $55 million cogen in Northeastern Alberta will supply 18 MW to the crude oil processing plant and the remainder to the local grid. The heart of the cogen is based on two GE Power Systems MS6001B combustion turbines and two TIW Western HRSG's installed in a simple-cycle configuration allowing the excess steam to be utilized by the plant.

Phase I of EnCana's Foster Creek facility recently came on line producing 20,000 barrels per day of bitumen obtained from oil sands using SAGD technology, which is a steam intensive process. EnCana is currently planning two further phases, which will add 40,000 barrels per day of bitumen production each and in total will reach 100,000 barrels per day by late 2007 or early 2008. Each of the further phases will consume between 20-25MW of power generation each and the addition of 8 to 16 gas-fired boilers in total capable of producing 200 million btu per hour each to maintain steam requirements of the plant. Phase II & III are each estimated to require a capital investment of over $350 million to put into service.

EnCana is also constructing the first phase of its Christina Lake Thermal Project. The facility is located in one of the highest quality in-situ reservoirs in Northern Alberta and this project is expected to produce more than 70,000 barrels per day of bitumen for 30 years using SAGD technology as well. In Saskatchewan EnCana is proceeding with a further phase to its Weyburn CO2 miscible flood program to increase oil production at the facility to 30,000 barrels per day by 2008.

At the present time it is estimated that over $24 billion will be spent on oil sands developments in Alberta alone by the year 2013 and will result in the production of over 3.5 million barrels of production per day by that time with the majority flowing into the US markets. EnCana is one of the world's largest oil & gas companies valued at over $20 billion in January 2003. EnCana has proven natural gas reserves of 8.4 Tcf and 1.3 billion barrels of proven oil & liquids reserves.

IIR has been tracking the progress of EnCana's Foster Creek SAGD & Cogen Project since January of 2001.