CALGARY, ALBERTA–(Marketwired – June 6, 2016) – Suncor today confirmed that it is ramping up production in a staged manner and expects that all of its operations in the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo (“RMWB”) will be producing at normal, pre-turnaround rates by the end of June.
Suncor expects base plant operations to return to pre-fire production rates within a week. A return to normal production levels at Suncor’s in situ facilities and the completion of the planned turnaround maintenance on the U2 upgrading complex is expected in the third week of June.
There has been no damage to Suncor’s assets as a result of the fires and enhanced fire mitigation work has been conducted at all sites to reduce any future potential threat. Suncor continues to work closely with the province, region and industry to monitor and manage the fire risk.
“Throughout this unprecedented situation, the community has demonstrated incredible resilience, patience and commitment to each other and the industry,” said Steve Williams, Suncor president and chief executive officer. “As a result of working with government and the region we safely returned thousands of people and restarted our operations in a safe manner. I’m grateful to our employees, the first responders and all those who are working so hard to prepare the community to welcome back residents.”
Construction activities at Suncor’s Fort Hills mine have also returned to pre-fire levels.
Based on the operator’s current estimates, Syncrude anticipates a return to production starting in late June and expects a full ramp up of production following completion of the scheduled turnaround by mid-July. Suncor will continue to work with the operator to ensure a safe restart of operations.
Due to the cumulative impact of the fires on refinery feedstock and a short unplanned outage at one unit of Suncor’s Edmonton refinery, gasoline and diesel production has been reduced. The unit is expected to be back in service by the end of the week and Suncor is currently working to minimize the supply disruptions to its retail and wholesale customers.
Corporate Guidance update
As a result of the RMWB fires, annualized total upstream production is now estimated to be between 585,000 and 620,000 barrels per day (“bbls/d”) with synthetic crude oil sales of 265,000 to 275,000 bbls/d, exported bitumen of 100,000 to 120,000 bbls/d, and Syncrude production between 105,000 and 115,000 bbls/d (excluding the planned acquisition of Murphy Oil Company Ltd.’s 5% interest in Syncrude). As a result of actual asset performance to date, production guidance for Exploration and Production has been increased to 105,000 to 110,000 bbls/d.
Incremental costs incurred to respond to the fires are expected to be more than offset by variable cost savings during the outage. Suncor anticipates cash operating costs per barrel to remain within guidance of $27-$30 per barrel for the full year. Syncrude cash operating costs are now estimated to be $41-$44 per barrel for the full year based on the operator’s estimates of restart timing and production ramp up.
These updates have been noted on Suncor’s 2016 corporate guidance which can be found on Suncor’s website at suncor.com.