Business
Partial production restored at the Muskeg River Mine
Partial production restored at the Muskeg River Mine.
About this update from Mapath Capital Corp
[{"type":"text","content":"\n\n\n\n\nCALGARY, Feb. 27 /CNW/ - Shell Canada announced today that bitumen\nproduction at the Muskeg River Mine oil sands facility has been partially\nrestored and repairs needed to re-establish full production have been\ninitiated.\nEarly on February 24, 2006, a major tear was discovered in the conveyor\nbelt that transports ore from the crushers in the mine to the bitumen\nextraction plant. Since that time, the mine has been able to use the undamaged\nportion of the belt to partially restore production. Both the mine and\nScotford Upgrader are currently in single-train operation and are producing at\napproximately one third of design rate.\nThere is a spare conveyor belt on-site at the mine and pre-installation\nwork to replace the belt has begun. A full shutdown of the mine in late March\nto install the new belt is expected to take up to two weeks. Options to\nmaintain upgrader production at minimum rates during this period are being\nevaluated. A review is underway to determine the root cause of the belt\nfailure and identify key learnings.\nWhile Shell's Scotford Refinery is also currently running at reduced\nrates, the Company does not anticipate any problems in keeping customers\nsupplied.\nThe Muskeg River Mine is located about 75 kilometres north of Fort\nMcMurray, Alberta. The Scotford Upgrader is located near Fort Saskatchewan,\nnortheast of Edmonton. Together, these facilities make up the Athabasca Oil\nSands Project, a joint venture among Shell Canada Limited (60 per cent),\nChevron Canada Limited (20 per cent) and Western Oil Sands L.P. (20 per cent).\nThe Scotford Refinery, located adjacent to the Scotford Upgrader, is owned 100\nper cent by Shell.\n\nThis document contains \"forward-looking statements\" based upon\nmanagement's assessment of the Corporation's operations. The forward-looking\nstatements contained in this document include references to future production,\noperational reliability and maintenance activities and schedules. Readers are\ncautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. Forward-\nlooking statements involve numerous assumptions, known and unknown risks, and\nuncertainties that may cause the Corporation's actual performance or results\nto differ materially from any estimates or projections of future performance\nor results expressed or implied by such forward-looking ...