Exxon Mobil begins bitumen production at $2bn Cold Lake Nabiye expansion in Canada

Exxon Mobil announced that the $2bn Cold Lake Nabiye expansion has started producing bitumen in Alberta, Canada.

The project is producing over 20,000 barrels per day bitumen which is expected to increase to 40,000 barrels in the near future.

Work under the expansion project included the development of a new steam generation and bitumen processing plant, field production pads and associated facilities, including a 170MW electrical cogeneration plant that improves the plant’s energy efficiency.

Additionally, sulfur-recovery facilities and an advanced wellpad design were added to improve environmental performance and to reduce the field footprint by over 40%.

ExxonMobil Development Company president Neil W. Duffin said: "ExxonMobil has the project management experience, engineering expertise and effective contractor interface to deliver superior cost and schedule performance along with safe, reliable facilities that will operate for decades.

"Nabiye will contribute important new production to ExxonMobil as we continue to bring new projects on line."

Said to be the largest and longest-running in-situ oil sands operation in Canada, the Cold Lake facility includes five steam generation and bitumen production plants.

The operation produced close to 150,000 barrels of bitumen per day in recent years.

ExxonMobil anticipates to increase production volumes this year by 2% to 4.1 million oil-equivalent barrels per day, driven by 7% liquids growth.

The company completed the ramp up of several projects in 2014 and it will begin seven new major developments in 2015, including Hadrian South in the Gulf of Mexico, expansion of the Kearl project in Canada, Banyu Urip in Indonesia and deepwater expansion projects at Erha in Nigeria and Kizomba in Angola.