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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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