Shell moves ahead with 80,000 barrel per day Carmon Creek project

CALGARY, Oct. 31, 2013 /CNW/ – Royal Dutch Shell plc (Shell) today announced its decision to proceed with its Carmon Creek project in Alberta, Canada, expected to produce up to 80,000 barrels of oil per day.  Carmon Creek is a thermal in situ project that is 100 per cent Shell owned and will be part of the company’s broader production, refining and marketing business across the full value chain in North America.

“I’m pleased we’re moving ahead with this important project,” said Lorraine Mitchelmore, Executive Vice President Heavy Oil.  “Shell’s Peace River oil leases represent a significant development opportunity.  Our decision to invest in Carmon Creek has been carefully studied with the goal of designing a project that is competitive from a commercial, technological and environmental perspective.”

At Carmon Creek, Shell combined its global procurement reach and technology with access to local expertise to design a facility that is both commercially viable and minimizes environmental impacts. This design includes a novel well delivery system and the use of cogeneration that will also feed power into the Alberta grid; enough to power half a million homes. Once the project is up and running the aim is to virtually eliminate the need for freshwater use for steam generation through recycling of water produced with the oil.

Carmon Creek will build on Shell’s more than 30 years of experience developing its Peace River heavy oil leases and established relationships with local communities and First Nations. It is expected to employ more than 1,000 local trades and contractors during peak construction periods.

Shell submitted its regulatory application for Carmon Creek in 2010 and received approval from the Alberta Energy Regulator in April 2013, following a rigorous and transparent review process. The project is expected to provide a secure, reliable energy source and benefits to Alberta and Canada for more than 35 years.

Notes to Editors:

• For the startup of Phase One and Two, Carmon Creek will produce from 13 well pads. An inter field pipeline system will transport steam to the wells and produce bitumen, water and natural gas that will be sent to central processing facilities. The central processing facilities will separate bitumen from water and natural gas, which can then be used to produce steam. Diluted bitumen is expected to be exported to existing North American refineries.
• Cogeneration units are expected to produce an annual average of up to 630 megawatts (MW) of electricity, of which about 500 MW is expected to be sold to the northwest Alberta power grid.
• Shell is taking a well manufacturing approach to drill and complete the wells using the Sirius Well Manufacturing Services joint venture. This approach is based on standardization of components, and allows quicker and repeatable operations that provides opportunities to reduce costs.
• To minimize surface disturbance, approximately 48 wells will be closely spaced on each well pad. Each well pad will have a life of 10 to 15 years and as pads come to the end of their life the well pad equipment will be refurbished and reused on new pads and the land will be reclaimed to minimize project footprint. .
• As is common in heavy oil construction, modules will be built elsewhere and transported to site for final assembly and commissioning.

Royal Dutch Shell plc
Royal Dutch Shell plc is incorporated in England and Wales, has its headquarters in The Hague and is listed on the London, Amsterdam, and New York stock exchanges. Shell companies have operations in more than 90 countries and territories with businesses including oil and gas exploration and production; production and marketing of liquefied natural gas and gas to liquids; manufacturing, marketing and shipping of oil products and chemicals and renewable energy projects. For further information, visit www.shell.com.

Shell Canada Ltd
Shell has been operating in Canada since 1911 and employs approximately 8,000 people across the country. A leading manufacturer, distributor and marketer of refined petroleum products, Shell produces natural gas, natural gas liquids and bitumen, and is Canada’s largest producer of sulphur. Shell is one of Canada’s oil sands developers and operates the Athabasca Oil Sands Project on behalf of the joint venture partners.

CAUTIONARY NOTE

The companies in which Royal Dutch Shell plc directly and indirectly owns investments are separate entities. In this announcement “Shell”, “Shell group” and “Royal Dutch Shell” are sometimes used for convenience where references are made to Royal Dutch Shell plc and its subsidiaries in general. Likewise, the words “we”, “us” and “our” are also used to refer to subsidiaries in general or to those who work for them. These expressions are also used where no useful purpose is served by identifying the particular company or companies. ”Subsidiaries”, “Shell subsidiaries” and “Shell companies” as used in this announcement refer to companies over which Royal Dutch Shell plc  either directly or indirectly has control. Companies over which Shell has joint control are generally referred to “joint ventures” and companies over which Shell has significant influence but neither control nor joint control are referred to as “associates”. In this announcement, joint ventures and associates may also be referred to as “equity-accounted investments”. The term “Shell interest” is used for convenience to indicate the direct and/or indirect (for example, through our 23% shareholding in Woodside Petroleum Ltd.) ownership interest held by Shell in a venture, partnership or company, after exclusion of all third-party interest.

This announcement contains forward-looking statements concerning the financial condition, results of operations and businesses of Royal Dutch Shell. All statements other than statements of historical fact are, or may be deemed to be, forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are statements of future expectations that are based on management’s current expectations and assumptions and involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results, performance or events to differ materially from those expressed or implied in these statements. Forward-looking statements include, among other things, statements concerning the potential exposure of Royal Dutch Shell to market risks and statements expressing management’s expectations, beliefs, estimates, forecasts, projections and assumptions. These forward-looking statements are identified by their use of terms and phrases such as ”anticipate”, ”believe”, ”could”, ”estimate”, ”expect”, ”goals”, ”intend”, ”may”, ”objectives”, ”outlook”, ”plan”, ”probably”, ”project”, ”risks”, “schedule”, ”seek”, ”should”, ”target”, ”will” and similar terms and phrases. There are a number of factors that could affect the future operations of Royal Dutch Shell and could cause those results to differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking statements included in this announcement, including (without limitation): (a) price fluctuations in crude oil and natural gas; (b) changes in demand for Shell’s products; (c) currency fluctuations; (d) drilling and production results; (e) reserves estimates; (f) loss of market share and industry competition; (g) environmental and physical risks; (h) risks associated with the identification of suitable potential acquisition properties and targets, and successful negotiation and completion of such transactions; (i) the risk of doing business in developing countries and countries subject to international sanctions; (j) legislative, fiscal and regulatory developments including regulatory measures addressing climate change; (k) economic and financial market conditions in various countries and regions; (l) political risks, including the risks of expropriation and renegotiation of the terms of contracts with governmental entities, delays or advancements in the approval of projects and delays in the reimbursement for shared costs; and (m) changes in trading conditions. All forward-looking statements contained in this announcement are expressly qualified in their entirety by the cautionary statements contained or referred to in this section. Readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. Additional risk factors that may affect future results are contained in Royal Dutch Shell’s 20-F for the year ended December 31, 2012 (available at www.shell.com/investor and www.sec.gov). These risk factors also expressly qualify all forward looking statements contained in this announcement and should be considered by the reader.  Each forward-looking statement speaks only as of the date of this announcement, October 31, 2013. Neither Royal Dutch Shell plc nor any of its subsidiaries undertake any obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statement as a result of new information, future events or other information. In light of these risks, results could differ materially from those stated, implied or inferred from the forward-looking statements contained in this announcement.

We may have used certain terms, such as resources, in this announcement that United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) strictly prohibits us from including in our filings with the SEC.  U.S. Investors are urged to consider closely the disclosure in our Form 20-F, File No 1-32575, available on the SEC website www.sec.gov. You can also obtain these forms from the SEC by calling 1-800-SEC-0330.

SOURCE Shell Canada Limited

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