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Regulators approve Imperial Oil’s Kearl oil sands mining project
| Calgary, AB,
February 27, 2007
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Imperial Oil announced today that the Alberta Energy and Utilities Board
(AEUB) and the Government of Canada have given conditional approval to
Imperial’s proposed Kearl oil sands project, following a joint federal and
provincial review.
“This decision is a significant milestone
for our project and our company,” said Randy Broiles, senior vice-president of
resources, Imperial Oil. “It has taken many years of work to get to this
point and we appreciate the efforts of everyone who has been involved,
especially our local stakeholders.”
This is a key
approval in progressing the Kearl oil sands project, a proposed oil-sands
mining project in Alberta.
“Our next steps involve reviewing
the decision approved conditions and further advancing engineering work to
define the project design, execution strategies and project cost estimate,”
said Mr. Broiles.
The Kearl project is similar in design to
existing oil-sands mines in the Fort McMurray region, using large-scale
shovels, trucks, crushers and oil-sands hydrotransport technology. The
current plan is to develop the mine in a staged manner, with an initial mine
train with production capacity of about 100,000 barrels a day. Subsequent
expansions could increase capacity to approximately 300,000 barrels a day.
The mine plan does not include any on-site bitumen upgrading. Any future
upgrading capacity to support the Kearl project would be the subject of a
separate application.
The
Kearl oil sands project is a joint venture with Imperial Oil Resources
Ventures Limited (70%) and ExxonMobil Canada Properties (30%). Imperial Oil
Resources is the designated operator of the project.
Imperial
Oil is one of Canada's largest corporations and a leading member of the
country’s petroleum industry. It is one of Canada's largest producers of crude
oil and natural gas and is also the country's largest refiner and marketer of
petroleum products, sold primarily under the Esso and Mobil brand names
through a coast-to-coast supply network that includes close to 2,000 retail
outlets.
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