CALGARY, Feb. 27 /CNW/ - Shell Canada announced today that bitumen production at the Muskeg River Mine oil sands facility has been partially restored and repairs needed to re-establish full production have been initiated. Early on February 24, 2006, a major tear was discovered in the conveyor belt that transports ore from the crushers in the mine to the bitumen extraction plant. Since that time, the mine has been able to use the undamaged portion of the belt to partially restore production. Both the mine and Scotford Upgrader are currently in single-train operation and are producing at approximately one third of design rate. There is a spare conveyor belt on-site at the mine and pre-installation work to replace the belt has begun. A full shutdown of the mine in late March to install the new belt is expected to take up to two weeks. Options to maintain upgrader production at minimum rates during this period are being evaluated. A review is underway to determine the root cause of the belt failure and identify key learnings. While Shell's Scotford Refinery is also currently running at reduced rates, the Company does not anticipate any problems in keeping customers supplied. The Muskeg River Mine is located about 75 kilometres north of Fort McMurray, Alberta. The Scotford Upgrader is located near Fort Saskatchewan, northeast of Edmonton. Together, these facilities make up the Athabasca Oil Sands Project, a joint venture among Shell Canada Limited (60 per cent), Chevron Canada Limited (20 per cent) and Western Oil Sands L.P. (20 per cent). The Scotford Refinery, located adjacent to the Scotford Upgrader, is owned 100 per cent by Shell. This document contains "forward-looking statements" based upon management's assessment of the Corporation's operations. The forward-looking statements contained in this document include references to future production, operational reliability and maintenance activities and schedules. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. Forward- looking statements involve numerous assumptions, known and unknown risks, and uncertainties that may cause the Corporation's actual performance or results to differ materially from any estimates or projections of future performance or results expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. These assumptions, risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, operating conditions, operating costs, labour availability, material and equipment shortages and other factors, many of which are beyond the control of the Corporation. Although the Corporation believes that the expectations represented by such forward-looking statements are reasonable based on the information available to it on the date of this document, there can be no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct.