Cenovus plans to accelerate oil sands production in Alberta

Cenovus Energy Inc. of Calgary plans to increase its net oil sands production in Alberta to 400,000 b/d by the end of 2021. This increase would raise the company’s total net production to about 500,000 b/d.

The new strategy will involve bringing a new oil sands project on stream every 12-18 months. It also plans to drill about 450 stratigraphic wells/year during the next 5 years in preparation for oil sands development.

Two thirds of the projected oil sands production will come from projects in the Foster Creek and Christina Lake regions of Alberta, in which Cenovus is a 50-50 partner with ConocoPhillips of Houston, Texas.

At Foster Creek, Cenovus has raised expected gross production capacity to 270,000-290,000 b/d from 235,000 b/d. It expects Phases F, G, and H each to have production capacity of 35,000 b/d, increases from earlier projections of 5,000 b/d each, with production from the latter two phases starting earlier than originally planned. It also has raised capacity estimates and is considering earlier production starts for future phases.

The company has begun steaming in Phase C of Christina Lake 6 weeks ahead of schedule and has completed half the construction of Phase D, which is 3-6 months ahead of schedule. It is assessing capacity increases and acceleration of future Christina Lake phases.

Gross production capacity at Christina Lake is expected to reach about 258,000 b/d when Phase H starts producing in 2019, unchanged from earlier forecasts.