Syncrude coker fix will take 30 days

A processing unit at Syncrude Canada Ltd.’s oilsands plant knocked off-line by a fire last week will be out another month for repairs, pushing back scheduled maintenance on a separate unit, the venture’s largest owner said Friday.

Canadian Oil Sands Ltd. had hoped Syncrude’s Coker 8-1, with a 100,000-barrel-per-day capacity, would be back online quickly after the controlled shutdown following the fire, said Siren Fisekci, a spokeswoman for the company that owns 37 per cent of Syncrude.

“We worked to re-establish circulation in the coker,” Fisekci said, explaining that a buildup of coke deposit in the vessel 8-1 walls prevented good circulation in the coker and now the company will be required to “decoke” the unit, which takes about 30 days.

The coker is one of three at Syncrude’s 350,000-barrela-day upgrader about 40 kilometres north of Fort McMurray, which processes oilsands bitumen into refineryready synthetic crude oil.

Syncrude is bumping back another full turnaround scheduled on a separate 100,000-barrel-per-day processing unit, Coker 8-3, into the second quarter of the year so output isn’t affected, Fisekci said.

Full maintenance turnarounds typically take 45 days.

“We will schedule the turnaround so it doesn’t overlap,” Fisekci said.

Two Syncrude workers were sprayed with hot bitumen and received minor burns last Friday night after opening a valve at unit 8-1, Alberta Occupational Health and Safety said.

A resulting fire forced unit 8-1 off-line and an investigation continues into the cause of the fire, Fisekci said.

Those workers were treated and were released to return to work within a day of the event, she said.