Train Keeps a Rollin' at Syncrude Aurora Oil Sands Mine with Planned Southwest Quadrant Replacement Project

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Researched by Industrialinfo.com (Industrial Information Resources, Incorporated; Houston, Texas). Coming on the heals of Syncrude Canada Limited's (Fort McMurray, Alberta) Train 2 Expansion is what the company is calling its Southwest Quadrant Replacement project. Loosely referred to, but not the be confused with, a planned Train 3 Addition the Southwest Quadrant Replacement will expand on Syncrude's existing two bitumen production trains. The second, of which train 2, is currently under construction and should be operating by the end of the year. The Southwest Quadrant Replacement project is being built to replace capacity from Syncrude's existing North mine.

Syncrude has selected AMEC Engineering & Construction (Calgary, Alberta) to provide the engineering and procurement services for the project. Syncrude elected not to utilize the Aurora Mine Project Alliance, which had carried out the majority of the stage 3 expansion program at Aurora, and had been plagued by cost overruns.

Estimated at a cost of $575 million, the Southwest Quadrant project is split into three sections, material handling, extraction, and cogen. AMEC will select a general contractor for each of the three sections, plus major discipline packages such as civil and general mechanical contracts for each area. The general mechanical contracts, for example, are estimated to be in the $30 million dollar range.

The material handling section will involve conveyance of oil sands from the mine to the extraction area and should be similar to Train 2 material handling, which was dominated by (2) 600' long, 84" wide belt conveyors.

The extraction section will entail expansion of the existing two bitumen separation and production trains, including cyclofeeder and surge plants, hydrotransport systems, primary separation vessels, and what the company is calling a "super pot". The super pot is really a centralized manifold and storage system for all hydrotransport systems and production trains at the Aurora site.

The cogen section involves the construction of an 80MW cogeneration plant, which will include gas turbines as well as heat recovery hot water generators. Work will also include the upgrading of existing site utilities as well as expansion of the maintenance shop.

AMEC is in the engineering and design stage for the project and is currently screening construction contractors and procuring large equipment packages. Syncrude hopes to begin construction for the Southwest Quadrant Replacement project as soon as Train 2 construction is complete. Earthwork is scheduled to begin in February of 2004 with project completion by 2006.