Shell starts up Canada oil sands upgrader expansion

04 May 2011 20:19  [Source: ICIS news]

TORONTO (ICIS)--Shell has started up a 100,000 bbl/day expansion at its oil sands upgrader site in Scotford, Canada, the company said on Wednesday.

Shell Canada’s expansion brings the company’s upgrading capacity at Scotford, Alberta, to 255,000 bbl/day.

Canada’s chemical industry uses olefins-rich off-gases from the oil sands upgrading process as a feedstock for chemical plants.

In March, Canada’s NOVA Chemicals sealed a feedstock supply deal for a mix of ethane and ethylene to be extracted from off-gas produced by an Alberta-based oil sands upgrader.

Alberta’s provincial government recently extended an incentive programme to ethane generated from oil sands upgrading. The programme, called the Incremental Ethane Extraction Policy (IEEP), is intended to increase ethane production.

Shell, with support from the Canadian federal government and Alberta’s provincial government, is also working on a big carbon capture and storage (CCS) project at Scotford.

For more on Shell, NOVA Chemicals and other producers visit ICIS company intelligence

By: Stefan Baumgarten
+1 713 525 2653

For the latest chemical news, data and analysis that directly impacts your business sign up for a free trial to ICIS news - the breaking online news service for the global chemical industry.

Get the facts and analysis behind the headlines from our market leading weekly magazine: sign up to a free trial to ICIS Chemical Business.

Printer Friendly