Update On The Western Canadian Oil Sands Even Without The Keystone XL

A reader sent this link/story from The New York Times. It's a nice update. The lede:

Suncor Energy, Canada’s top petroleum producer, announced on Thursday that it would expand its oil production in 2014 by 10 percent in another sign that the Obama administration’s delay in approving the Keystone XL pipeline extension is not holding back growth in the western Canadian oil sands fields.

“We’re set for a strong year of continued production,” Suncor’s chief executive, Steven W. Williams, said. The company announced a capital spending program of $7.45 billion for 2014, $477 million more than it had forecast earlier this year.

Suncor, which is based in Calgary, produces oil and gas around Canada, and has operations in North Africa and the North Sea. But its oil sands operations are the main driver for the company. In the most recent quarter, its oil sands output rose 16 percent from the year before for a record of 396,000 barrels a day, nearly 20 percent of the country’s total oil sands production.

The company said it expected its oil sands production to increase again next year to 430,000 barrels a day.

Some data points.

Production:

• currently 2 million bopd from the Canadian oil sands
• forecasts of 5.2 million bopd by 2030

Takeaway:

• Keystone XL was to have had capacity of 800,000 bopd; to originate at Hardisty, Alberta
• recently announced: three new CBR projects with combined capacity of 350,000 bopd
• CBR to quadruple over next few years to 900,000 bopd
• Enbridge will build a $1.4 billion pipeline from Fort Hills mine to Hardisty, Alberta
• Gibson Energy will build a CBR terminal in Hardisty (Canadian Pacific Railway); 140,000 bopd

Anticipated production: Suncor's Fort Hills mine

• $13 billion project
• joint venture: Suncore, Total (France), mining firm Teck Resources
• shelved during financial crisis of 2008
• revival: will increase oil sands production by 180,000 bopd
• mining life of 50 years