Planned maintenance on 8-1 CO Boiler completed

(Fort McMurray, Alberta) Syncrude is pleased to announce that yesterday, Sunday October 10th at approx. 6:00 pm, the 8-1 CO (carbon monoxide) Boiler at Syncrude’s Mildred Lake site was restored to service, more than half a day ahead of the estimated schedule for planned repairs.

“Managing the health and safety of our on-site workers and our local community has been a priority during Syncrude’s more than 25 years of operation,” said Jim Carter, Syncrude President and Chief Operating Officer. “At no time did emissions pose any health risk to our employees, contractors or the local community. I want to assure our stakeholders that extensive air emission monitoring confirmed there were no off-site exceedances of Alberta Ambient Air Quality Guidelines, and we remained at all times within allowable occupational exposure levels on site,” he added.

“Through the hard work of many people, we were able to bring the CO Boiler back on-line much earlier than anticipated and I want to thank all those involved for their efforts,” Mr. Carter said. “We continue to ensure that all necessary precautions are taken during both regular operations and maintenance periods.”

Alberta Environment issued an Environmental Protection Order on September 28th to allow Syncrude to do a planned outage to conduct repairs to the Boiler to prevent a possible emergency situation in future. Officials from Alberta Environment reviewed the detailed plan and schedule for the repairs that minimized potential adverse effects to the environment. Ongoing third-party environmental air monitoring was done in conjunction with the appropriate agencies.

During the repair work, Coker feed rates were at reduced levels and Syncrude’s Upgrading Operations took other measures to minimize emissions. There was no appreciable impact on the annual production forecast of approximately 87 million barrels of Syncrude Sweet Blend.

The Syncrude Project is a joint venture operated by Syncrude Canada Ltd. and owned by Canadian Oil Sands Limited, ConocoPhillips Oilsands Partnership II, Imperial Oil Resources, Mocal Energy Limited, Murphy Oil Company Ltd., Nexen Inc., and Petro-Canada Oil and Gas.

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