Suncor finishes repairs, restarts oilsands processing unit

Suncor Energy Inc. said on Monday it has finished nearly five weeks of repairs to a major processing unit at its Alberta oilsands plant and returned it to normal operations.

Suncor, Canada’s largest energy company, took the upgrading unit down on March 13 to fix a fractionator. It said it did not expect to change its annual production forecast for the 350,000 barrel a day project.

It said in March it had expected to produce an average of 140,000 bpd during the work.

Prices for Canadian synthetic crude surged as much as $10 a barrel to $11 under benchmark West Texas Intermediate when the company announced the unplanned maintenance. On Monday, light synthetic for May delivery was quoted at $1.50-$2 a barrel under WTI.

Syncrude Canada also had one of its upgrading units, the 100,000 bpd Coker 8-1, down for extended maintenance and there was no word yet on whether it had restarted.

Suncor shares closed up one per cent or 36 cents to $30.81 on the Toronto Stock Exchange on Monday.