Total postpones oil sands project by a year or more
Shaun Polczer, Calgary Herald
Published: Wednesday, May 28, 2008
CALGARY - Total is pushing the start-up date for its Joslyn integrated oilsands mine back at least a year.
Istead of coming onstream in 2012, the project will now start producing "before 2015" Total Canada president Mike Borrell said today.
Total is seeking to be Canada's next integrated oilsands producer with an open pit mine and upgrading complex near Fort McMurray.
In addition, it owns half of the Surmont thermal project in partnership with ConocoPhillips.
The company is currently working on the front-end engineering to determine the cost of the project which will produce 100,000 barrels per day in the first phase. Expansion will see that figure climb to 200,000 barrels per day by 2020.
Borrell said the original time line was contingent on beginning regulatory consideration this spring. The earliest the public could start is this fall, he added.
French giant Total came to Canada with the purchase of Deer Creek Energy in 2005.
