Corrected: NPRA '08: Alberta can develop oil sands petchems

01 April 2008 00:19  [Source: ICIS news]

Correction: In the ICIS news story headlined "NPRA '08: Alberta can develop oil sands petchems" dated 1 April 2008, please read in the second paragraph ...near Fort Saskatchewan and a downstream cluster in Edmonton... instead of ...in Fort Saskatchewan and Edmonton... Also, in the seventh paragraph, please read ...Of the 3.0m bbl/day of bitumen expected to be produced by 2025, 15-20% would be upgrader bottoms... instead of ...Upgrading bitumen from these reserves would produce more than 3.0m bbl/day of upgrader bottoms by 2025.... A corrected story follows.

 

By Nigel Davis

 

SAN ANTONIO, Texas (ICIS news)--Canada’s Alberta province could be the world’s largest producer of synthesis gas and lead the way in producing chemicals from oil sands, consultants Kline said on Monday.

It identified 31 strategically important products that could be produced in an integrated petrochemicals complex located near Fort Saskatchewan and a downstream cluster in Edmonton in the province.

Gasification units could be fed on stranded ‘upgrader bottoms’ from oil sands processing which would have little alternative value, Kline’s Fred Du Plessis said on the sidelines of the 33rd National Petrochemicals and Refiners Association (NPRA) meeting.

The Kline study, sponsored by Alberta’s government, identifies C1, C2 and C3 molecules that could form the core of chemicals production from oil sands.

Products in these chains, some providing feedstock for further processing, include ammonia, methanol, urea, acetic acid, vinyl acetate monomer (VAM), polyethylene (PE), ethylene oxide/ethylene glycol (EO/EG) and polypropylene (PP).

Alberta’s future petrochemicals development will be based on its oil sands resources, Kline says, that amount to the second largest oil reserve in the world.

Of the 3.0m bbl/day of bitumen expected to be produced by 2025, 15-20% would be upgrader bottoms, it estimates, and exceed demand for regional energy generation in domestic or export markets.

These stranded upgrader bottoms could form the basis of new petrochemicals development.

Unlocking Alberta’s downstream chemicals potential, however, requires the industry to recognise the opportunities that ‘unconventional’ raw materials and feedstocks provide, Kline says.

It screened initially 140 products that might be produced from the potentially available feedstock streams.

Listen to Ivan Lerner's radio interview with NOVA's Grant Thomson on Alberta's oil sands potential

By: Nigel Davis
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