CO Boiler maintenance at Syncrude successfully completed

(Fort McMurray, Alberta) – Repairs to Syncrude’s 8-1 CO (carbon monoxide) Boiler were successfully completed, ending the diversion activities at around 2 a.m. this morning (Friday May 6th). The unit was taken off line at about 1 a.m. on Thursday May 5th to allow the necessary repairs to be completed safely.

During that time, gas from Coker 8-1 was diverted from the boiler so that it goes to atmosphere through the Diverter Stack. It is a normal, routine practice to isolate a CO Boiler for mid-run maintenance. Syncrude’s Upgrading Operations have reduced coker feed rates and taken other measures to minimize the Diverter Stack emissions during the repair work.

There were no off-site exceedances of Alberta Ambient Air Quality Guidelines attributed to this diverting event.

Key regional stakeholders, including Alberta Environment, were notified of this outage. Syncrude’s Industrial Hygiene and Environmental Department have increased their monitoring of air quality on site. Off-site air monitoring is via the Wood Buffalo Environmental Association’s air monitoring network that includes stations in close proximity to the Syncrude site, as well as ones in Fort McMurray and Fort McKay.

Syncrude’s CO Boilers are used to combust carbon monoxide and other coker off-gas, thereby recovering excess energy.

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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