OIL SANDS – Shell halts work at Carmon Creek in situ project

ALBERTA – Shell Canada of Calgary has decided not to continue work at its 100% owned Carmon Creek in situ oil sands project near Fort McMurray. The project was to have produced 80,000 bbl per day. Shell okayed the Carmon Creek project in October 2013, but said in March 2015 that it would be re-phased to take advantage of the market downturn to optimize design and retender certain contracts. This decision reflects current uncertainties, including the lack of infrastructure to move Canadian crude oil to global commodity markets. Shell will retain the Carmon Creek leases and preserve some equipment while continuing to study the options for this asset. The company take a write-down of some $2 billion in Q3 2015 results. The project reserves were estimated at 418 million barrels bitumen at end 2014 will be de-booked and the project estimated recoverable petroleum resources will be classified as contingent resources. Learn about Shell’s oil sands business at Shell.ca.