Suncor’s $1.4-billion cogeneration units to slash emissions
Suncor Energy, Canada’s second-largest oilsands producer, will invest $1.4 billion to install two cogeneration units at its Oil Sands Base Plant, reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 25 per cent, it said Monday.
The natural gas-fuelled cogeneration units will replace cokefired boilers and provide steam generation for Suncor’s bitumen extraction and upgrading operations, as well as 800 megawatts of power to be transmitted to Alberta’s electricity grid.
The Base Plant in northern Alberta is Suncor’s largest oil sands project, producing 357,000 barrels per day of synthetic crude from its two upgraders.
“We’re trying to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions in every barrel we produce and this is a big step forward,” Suncor chief executive Mark Little said in an interview.
Suncor already transmits about 450 megawatts to the Alberta grid from its existing cogeneration units and the Base Plant project will nearly triple that contribution, Little said.
The project will provide low-carbon power equivalent to displacing 550,000 cars from the road, Calgary-based Suncor said in a statement.
The company is aiming for a $2-billion increase in free funds flow by 2023 and Little said the cogeneration project would generate just over 10 per cent of that through lowering oil sands operating costs and sustaining capital costs.
It will also cut Base Plant sulphur dioxide emissions by 45 per cent and nitrogen oxide emissions by 15 per cent.
Cogeneration uses natural gas to produce both industrial steam and electricity. A number of other oilsands producers including Cenovus Energy and MEG Energy also use it to power their operations.