Project Profile
SURMONT PHASE 1
Location: approx. 80 km south of Fort McMurray, Alberta
Capacity: 120,000 bpd
Area: 80km²
2P Reserves: 709 million barrels
Start-up year: October 2007
The Surmont Project is located in the Athabasca Region of northeastern Alberta, Canada. The Surmont leases fall in the southern Athabasca oil sands region, approximately 80 km south of Fort McMurray, an area that has been extensively explored and developed for natural gas projects and oil sands resources. The Surmont Project is a proposed multi-phased steam-assisted gravity drainage (SAGD) oil sands development with a total design capacity of approximately 120,000 bpd.
The Surmont leases features SAGD bitumen recovery from the McMurray Formation, a reservoir that holds very similar properties to those at Christina Lake. The operation features associated steam cogeneration, well pads, water treatment and other related facilities.
ConocoPhillips launched the Surmont SAGD pilot project comprising two 350m-long well pairs in 1997, and made the first 3-D seismic acquisition in 1998. The third well pair, measuring about 700m, was drilled in 2000. Total acquired a 43.5% interest in the project in 2002 and increased it to 50% in 2005.
Based on 36 well pairs drilled in three series, Surmont Phase 1 was launched in 2003, steam injections at 20 wells started in mid-2007, and first oil was produced in October 2007.
SURMONT PHASE 2
Location: approx. 63km south-east of Fort McMurray, Alberta
Capacity: 136,000 bpd
Area: 567km²
Start-up year: September 2015
In 2010 ConocoPhillips constructed the Surmont 2 facility, the largest single-phase SAGD project ever undertaken. Surmont Phase 2 Oil Sands project involved the expansion of the Surmon SAGD plant to increase its production capacity from the existing 27,000 barrels of bitumen a day to 136,000 barrels of bitumen a day. Plans are in place to implement additional phases to further enable the production from the facility to reach an ultimate capacity of 283,000 barrels a day for more than 30 years.
Project activities under the Phase 2 primarily involved the installation of additional well pads, central processing facilities, storage tanks, pipelines and water treatment facilities. Construction of additional camps, water source and disposal wells, power lines, substation, and roads was also completed.
The partners in the project entered into a terminal services agreement with Enbridge in May 2013, under which, the latter agreed to expand its Cheecham Terminal with an investment of approximately US$300m to accommodate the additional production from Surmont Phase 2.
Total gross capacity for Surmont 1 and 2 is expected to reach 150,000 bopd. (October, 2016)
Operators:
ConocoPhillips: 50% interest
Total E&P Canada: 50% interest
Contractors:
Bantrel: FEED contract for the Surmont Phase 2 (May, 2008)
- EPC contract for the entire project, including the central processing facilities and field facilities areas (May, 2010)
Cahill: Installation of nine SAGD well pads and equipment modules, electrical houses, pump houses, pipe racks, electrical, instrumentation, insulation, scaffolding and civil works.
SNC Lavalin: Contract to design, build, operate, and maintain a workforce lodge to accommodate 2,500 workers.
PLC Energy: Was contracted to install 23km of above-ground pipelines that connected two well pads to the central processing plant, and supplied the equipment modules for water and disposal wells.
Aecon: Pipe fabrication works and assembly of 99 well pad modules and fabrication of all installed pipe spool.
Keller: Contract to supply and install the driven steel pipe piles in CPFs and the field facilities (FF).
Drakken: Construction management services for the water treatment process facilities.
Aker Solutions: Supplied a slop oil treater package.
Subcontractors:
ASI Water: Subcontracted to improve the water and wastewater treatment systems for the buildings.