Oil production starts at Sunrise Energy project in Alberta, Canada

Oil production has been started at the Sunrise Energy project in northern Alberta, Canada.

The project is located about 60km northeast of Fort McMurray. Phase one is anticipated to produce about 60,000 barrels per day.

Regulatory approvals are in place for around 200,000 barrels per day and engineering work is underway for the second phase.

Husky Energy operates the Sunrise project and its partner operates the jointly-owned BP-Husky Refinery near Toledo, Ohio, US.

Bitumen from the project will be processed at the refinery into several transportation fuels. Pipeline transportation agreements are in place.

Steam operations started in December 2014. Of the total production capacity, 30,000 barrels per day will be net to Husky Energy.

The company said in-situ steam assisted gravity drainage technology will be used to recover the bitumen, with minimal surface land disturbance.

Husky Energy CEO Asim Ghosh said: "Sunrise is the latest in a series of resilient, low sustaining capital projects to come online from our diverse portfolio.

"We are expecting more than 40 years of production from this reservoir with very low ongoing capital costs."

Husky has a portfolio of oil sands leases which include Tucker and other properties in its oil sands portfolio.

In Western Canada, the company is undertaking oil and gas resource plays to further unlock value from its land position of over two million acres.