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Suncor Energy News

10 Apr 2023

Rare Shipments of North Sea Forties Crude Head to East Coast Refiners

U.S. and Canadian refiners have turned to North Sea "Forties" crude oil for the first time in seven years in the latest sign of changing global oil flows from Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Nearly 2.6 million barrels of the crude are set to arrive at U.S. East Coast ports since February, according to Customs data on Refinitiv Eikon. Some of the oil is likely headed to Canada via pipeline. The light, low-sulfur Forties crudes are blended with others to replace Russian crudes that have been barred from the U.S. and Canada. Prior to the ban, about 50% of all crude from Russian ports that landed in the U.S. went to East Coast refineries, the customs data showed. The tanker Sea Turtle in February discharged 770,000 barrels of Forties and Forties blend crudes in Maine, destined for Suncor Energy.

19 Oct 2021

Regulator Lays Charges Over 2018 Canada Oil Spill

The Canada-Newfoundland Offshore Petroleum Board said on Tuesday that it has laid three charges following a 2018 oil spill off Canada's Atlantic Coast.The board said it laid the charges against Husky Oil Operations Limited for the spill in the White Rose Field. Cenovus Energy has since then acquired Husky.A leaking flowline from the White Rose Field to the SeaRose floating production, storage and offloading unit spilled 250 cubic meters (1,572 barrels) of oil in November, 2018, temporarily shutting down all crude production in the waters of Newfoundland and Labrador.Last month, Cenovus struck a deal with Suncor Energy to decrease its stake in White Rose and raise Suncor's ownership…

16 Apr 2021

Clean Crude? Oil Companies use Offsets to Claim Green Barrels

Credit:fuzzy3d/AdobeStock

In January, Occidental Petroleum announced it had accomplished something no oil company had done before: It sold a shipload of crude that it said was 100% carbon-neutral.While the two-million-barrel cargo to India was destined to produce more than a million tons of planet-warming carbon over its lifecycle, from well to tailpipe, the Texas-based driller said it had completely offset that impact by purchasing carbon credits under a U.N.-sponsored program called CORSIA.Carbon credits…

25 Sep 2020

Canada Commits Nearly $240 Mln to Aid Offshore Oil Industry

© Stephen / Adobe Stock

Canada will spend C$320 million ($238.56 million) to support its offshore oil industry in Newfoundland and Labrador, which has struggled as coronavirus pandemic travel restrictions reduced demand, the government said on Friday.The funds are intended to support jobs and to lower greenhouse gas emissions from crude production, and could be used for maintenance, upgrades and environmental services, Natural Resources Minister Seamus O'Regan said St. John's.The money falls short of requests from the industry…

21 Jul 2020

Canada: Hibernia Oil Platform Shuts Output after Leak

Hibernia oil platform offshore Canada (Photo: Suncor Energy)

The Hibernia oil platform in Canada was shut after a leakage of drilling and production fluids, the Hibernia Management and Development Co (HMDC) said late Monday.Hibernia sits roughly 315 km (200 miles) east of St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador. ExxonMobil owns the largest stake in the oil platform, followed by Chevron Canada and Suncor Energy Inc."Water sampling late on July 19, during drill well flow back operations, indicated an exceedance on the produced water discharge…

01 Jun 2020

Suncor Extinguishes Fire on Terra Nova FPSO

A fire broke out on Saturday aboard Suncor Energy-operated Terra Nova FPSO offshore Canada, the offshore oil and gas regulator C-NLOPB said.Suncor told C-NLOPB that everyone onboard was accounted for and safe, and that the fire had been extinguished."There are no injuries and we await further information from Suncor as to the extent & their assessment of the cause," the C-NLOPB said Saturday. According to a report by CBC, there are 82 people aboard the FPSO.Per C-NLOPB, there is no gas or crude held onboard the FPSO which has been shut down for maintenance."The facility is not producing at this time,” CNLOPB tweeted on May 30.To remind…

28 Nov 2017

ExxonMobil's Canada Offshore Project Produces First Oil

Photo: ExxonMobil Canada

The Hebron oil project off the coast of eastern Canada has produced its first oil, operator Exxon Mobil said on Tuesday, in a boost to Atlantic Canada's output after years of weak crude prices. At its peak Hebron will produce up to 150,000 barrels per day (bpd), Exxon said. It will help Atlantic Canada offshore production climb 44 percent to 307,000 bpd by 2024, according to estimates from the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers. The platform is located 200 miles (350 kilometres) off the coast of Newfoundland and Labrador in depths of 300 feet (92 metres) and the oil field…

03 Nov 2017

Teekay’s New Shuttle Tanker Delivered

Beothuk Spirit is the first of three new Canadian flagged shuttle tankers built by Samsung Heavy Industries for Teekay Offshore (Photo: Teekay Offshore)

Teekay Offshore said it has taken delivery of Beothuk Spirit, the first of three new shuttle tankers to serve East Coast Canada, built in Korea by Samsung Heavy Industries. Heritage Class sister vessels Norse Spirit and Dorset Spirit are scheduled for delivery in the first half of November 2017 and early-2018 respectively. The three Suezmax, DP2 shuttle tankers will provide crude transportation services to the Hibernia, Terra Nova, White Rose and Hebron offshore oil fields located in St. John’s, Newfoundland & Labrador.

21 Nov 2016

Canada Oil Sands Asia Export Dream Faces Port Bottleneck

The bullish view for Suncor Energy Inc (SU.TO), Cenovus Energy Inc (CVE.TO) and other Canadian energy producers calls for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau by next month to approve a major pipeline expansion to the west coast, boosting sales of land-locked oil sands crude to Asia. But a growing number of shipping brokers and physical oil traders warn that any new influx of oil will hit a bottleneck in Vancouver, because of the port's inability to accept the megaships that dominate oil trade globally. This bottleneck marks one of the more under appreciated hurdles facing Canadian oil sands crude being shipped from its busiest port of Vancouver, these shipping brokers say. Middle Eastern producers already ship oil ship to Asia far more cheaply, thanks to the bigger vessels they employ. And U.S.

03 Oct 2016

Transocean Floater Transocean Barents Enters Contract

Transocean Ltd. (NYSE: RIG) announced today that the Transocean Barents, a harsh-environment, ultra-deepwater floater, has been awarded a 15-month contract with Suncor Energy at a dayrate of $260,000. The estimated contract backlog, excluding mobilization, is $119 million. The rig is expected to commence operations offshore Canada in the third quarter of 2017.

13 Jun 2016

DNV GL Guideline Trashes Unnecessary Subsea Documentation

Customer-case shows potential for a 40% reduction in engineering hours on subsea paperwork, and up to 80% less documentation. A cross-industry project led by DNV GL to halt the boom in subsea documentation shows that implementing a standardized approach can significantly reduce engineering hours. The two-year collaboration led by DNV GL has concluded in a publicly available Recommended Practice which can reduce the amount of subsea documentation and enable documentation reuse in a typical subsea field development project. DNVGL-RP-O101 ‘Technical documentation for subsea projects’ details a required minimum set of documentation transferred between E&P companies, operators and contractors for the construction, procurement and operation of a field.

18 May 2016

Canadian Oil Exports Drop, Supply Hunt on Amid Wildfires

In a sign the massive Alberta wildfire is taking a toll on oil transport, Canadian crude exports to the United States dropped 12 percent last week, while another blend of Canadian sweet crude oil rallied as concerns grow about supply. Overall, trading in Canadian crude was quiet, as the second half of the month is generally inactive. Hot and dry weather and strong winds were expected to push the wildfire burning near Fort McMurray, Alberta eastward on Wednesday, continuing to threaten facilities and work camps in Canada's prized oil sands. With the fire projected to grow further, producers are starting to scramble for needed oil supply.

04 May 2016

Oil Turns Lower after US Crude Build

A bigger-than-expected build in U.S. crude inventories to fresh record highs pushed oil markets lower on Wednesday after an early rally over concerns about production cuts in Canada's oil sands region due to a wildfire. U.S. crude stocks, which have been setting record highs since January, grew 2.8 million barrels last week, government data showed, about a million barrels more than analysts' expectations. Gasoline stocks also posted a surprise increase. The data overshadowed concerns over evacuations in the Canadian province of Alberta, where a wildfire raged unchecked through the Canadian city of Fort McMurray in the heart of the country's oil sands region, prompting some companies, including Suncor Energy and Royal Dutch Shell, to cut back production.

30 Aug 2015

Syncrude Uncertain about Plant Fire Affecting Production

The operator of Canada's largest synthetic crude project said on Saturday it is investigating the causes of an early morning fire at an upgrading plant. Firefighters extinguished the blaze, at Syncrude Canada's Mildred Lake upgrading complex in northern Alberta, and no one was injured, said company spokesman Will Gibson in a phone interview. The fire broke out a few hours after the province's energy regulator announced it was shutting in 95 pipelines operated by Nexen, one of the partners in the project, because of safety issues identified following a large oil-related spill in July. But he said it was too soon to know how production would be affected.

15 Aug 2015

Alberta Panel to Review Climate-change Policy

The Canadian province of Alberta, the biggest source of U.S. oil imports, announced the members of its climate change policy review panel on Friday, part of its pledge to implement new rules on greenhouse gas reductions. Environment Minister Shannon Phillips said the panel would offer recommendations to the government by early November, ahead of a key United Nations climate change conference in Paris in December, but did not say when new GHG targets are likely to come into effect. The five members of the panel are University of Alberta energy economist Andrew Leach, former Suncor Energy executive Gord Lambert, Enbridge Inc executive Linda Coady, Pembina Institute board member Stephanie Cairns and Angela Adams, a Metis Fort McMurray school district trustee.

09 Aug 2015

Alberta Investigating Bird Deaths at Oil Sands Site

Alberta's energy regulator said on Saturday it is investigating reports that about 30 blue herons have died at a Syncrude Canada oil sands mine site in the northern part of the Canadian province. The Alberta Energy Regulator said it sent investigators to the Syncrude Canada Mildred Lake site, which is about 40 km (25 miles) north of Fort McMurray. In 2010, Syncrude was fined C$3 million ($2.29 million) for negligence in the 2008 deaths of 1,600 ducks in a toxic waste pond, a case that fueled international concern about the environmental impact of developing Canada's oil sands. Syncrude's partners include Canadian Oil Sands Ltd, Imperial Oil Ltd, Suncor Energy Inc, Sinopec , CNOOC Ltd's Nexen, Japan's Mocal Energy and Murphy Oil Co.

09 Jun 2015

Samsung to Build Three Shuttle Tankers for Teekay Offshore

Samsung Heavy Industries (SHI) has announced that it is to build three shuttle tankers for Teekay Offshore Partners, at a total price of $365m and the contract includes an option for an extra vessel. The contract was signed in Oslo where Nor-Shipping 2015 was held. As for the contract value, while SHI says that the three tankers cost USD 330 million, for Teekay it is USD 365 million. The tankers ordered are 155,000DWT shuttle tankers that are 293m long and 49m wide, and they will be delivered by February 2018. Both SHI and Teekay Offshore have said that the tankers will be used to transport crude oil from offshore oilfields off east Canada. Shuttle tankers are oil tankers that transport crude oil extracted from marine oil fields to storage bases on the ground.

01 Jun 2015

Teekay Orders 3 Tankers for Canada Contracts

Teekay Offshore Partners L.P. informs it has entered long-term contracts to provide shuttle tanker services for a group of companies producing oil on Canada’s East Coast, including Chevron Canada, Husky Energy, Mosbacher Operating Ltd., Murphy Oil, Nalcor Energy, Statoil and Suncor Energy. The 15-year contracts, plus extension options, will initially be serviced by one of Teekay Offshore’s existing shuttle tankers, the Navion Hispania, and two to three third party-owned shuttle tankers currently operating in East Coast Canada, which will be chartered-in to Teekay Offshore’s Canadian affiliate located in St. John’s, Newfoundland, prior to the delivery of up to four shuttle tanker newbuildings.

13 Apr 2015

Gibson to Build 900,000b Crude Storage in Alberta

Canadian oil storage and transport company Gibson Energy Inc said on Monday it is building 900,000 barrels of crude oil storage at its terminal in Hardisty, Alberta, after receiving sufficient support from shippers. The company will build a 500,000 barrel tank backed by a long-term contract with Teck Resources Ltd, a partner in the Fort Hills oil sands project and a new customer for Gibson Energy, and another 400,000 tank. The new storage is expected to be in service by mid-2017. RBC Capital Markets strategist Robert Kwan said against the backdrop of weak benchmark crude prices, Gibson Energy's ability to sign long-term contracts with customers to underpin of new storage should be viewed as a positive.

23 Sep 2014

Suncor Sends First Tanker of Western Canada Heavy Crude to Europe

Canada's largest oil and gas producer, Suncor Energy Inc, is shipping its first ever tanker of Western Canadian heavy crude from Canada's East Coast to Europe, a company spokeswoman said on Tuesday. Suncor spokeswoman Sneh Seetal confirmed Reuters shipping data that shows the aframax tanker Minerva Gloria was set to pick up a cargo of crude oil from the port of Sorel-Tracy on the St. Lawrence River in Quebec. Seetal declined to comment on where in Europe the crude cargo is going, citing commercial confidentiality. According to Reuters data it will be discharged in the Mediterranean. The crude was delivered by rail to a storage facility in Sorel-Tracy that is owned by Kildair Service Ltd.

17 Oct 2014

Suncor Crude Tanker to Resume Journey from Quebec to Gulf Coast

A tanker chartered by Canada's Suncor Energy Inc to ship oil sands crude from Quebec to the U.S. Gulf Coast was expected to receive replacement parts on Friday, enabling it to resume its journey, a Transport Canada spokeswoman said. The aframax tanker Genmar Daphne will be the second tanker of Western Canadian heavy crude that Suncor has shipped from the port of Sorel-Tracy on Quebec's St. Lawrence river. However, further shipments are unlikely in the current price environment, a market source said. Shrinking differentials between Western Canada Select heavy blend and U.S. crude futures mean netbacks - the price received by producers minus the cost of getting the product to market - have been severely squeezed. The Genmar Daphne has been anchored in the St.

03 Nov 2014

Production Begins at North Sea Golden Eagle Field

Denmark's Maersk Oil, a unit of conglomerate A.P. Moller-Maersk , said on Monday oil production from the Golden Eagle field in Britain's North Sea had started. There are two Golden Eagle wells with potential to produce about 18,000 barrels of oil per day. Nexen Petroleum, a subsidiary of Chinese state-run CNOOC , has a 36.54 percent interest in the development and is the operator. Maersk Oil holds a 31.56 percent interest, Suncor Energy has 26.69 percent and Edinburgh Oil and Gas has 5.21 percent. Reporting by Ole Mikkelsen

18 Nov 2014

Keystone Debate: Obama Rhetoric Rings Half True

President Barack Obama's sharpest criticism yet of Keystone XL this weekend included a controversial contention that the huge pipeline would be used to pump Canadian oil sands crude to global markets, not to U.S. refiners. TransCanada Corp., the pipeline giant that has been waiting six years for U.S. approval to build the $8 billion line, strongly denies it and says it is constructing the 1,179-mile (1,900-km) conduit only to serve import-dependant Gulf Coast refiners, weaning them away from supplies of heavy crude from Saudi Arabia and Venezuela. The truth, experts say, lies somewhere in between. The 830,000-barrel-per-day (bpd) pipeline helping link Canada's oil sands to the Gulf Coast was conceived six years ago to supply U.S. customers. Since then, however, the U.S.