OILSANDS: Syncrude recovers after power outage

ALBERTA – Suncor Energy of Calgary is making plans to restart Syncrude production after a site wide power disruption on June 20. The preliminary investigation indicated the cause was a transformer trip in the Syncrude power house. The outage resulted in a total loss of power and steam generation. All process units were brought down. [caption id="attachment_1003723901" align="alignright" width="274"] A site wide power and steam outage interrupted production at Syncrude. (Image: Syncrude)[/caption] Suncor said there were no injuries or safety incidents as a result of this outage. Power and steam have been fully restored, and Syncrude has begun a staged return to operations. One coker with a capacity of 150,000 bbl/d is expected to return to service during the second half of July. A second coker (100,000 bbl/d) is expected to be back on line during the first half of August. Coke must be removed from the third coker due to the nature of the shutdown. Syncrude will probably advance some maintenance planned for this unit in the fall of 2018 and spring of 2019. Pipeline shipments will probably be 60% to 70% of capacity for August, with a ramp up to full production in the first half of September. Read more about the oilsands at www.Syncrude.com.