Page 15 - NorthAmOil Week 47 2020

NorthAmOil PROJECTS & COMPANIES NorthAmOil

Suncor to assume Syncrude

operatorship by end of 2021

ALBERTA CANADA’S Suncor Energy has said it will the two assets. Indeed, Suncor’s president and
become the operator of the Syncrude Canada CEO, Mark Little, said the company anticipates
joint venture by the end of 2021. The company achieving synergies of around CAD300mn
– Syncrude’s majority owner with a 58.74% stake ($230mn) after it takes on the operatorship
– has reached an agreement in principle with the of Syncrude. He warned that some job losses
other partners in the project on taking over the could be expected on the administrative side of
operatorship. The agreement still needs to be the business once the transfer of operatorship
finalised. Currently, Syncrude itself is the day- is complete.
to-day operator. “What’s happening now is, instead of having
The other partners in Syncrude are Imperial a duplicate structure, now Suncor will take over
Oil Resources with a 25% interest, Sinopec Oil that and the two organisations essentially will
Sands Partnership with a 9% stake and CNOOC become one. And now we can bring the talents
Oil Sands Canada with 7.2%. Suncor has steadily and capability on both sides of the fence to try to
increased its interest in Syncrude from 12% in make this business as strong as possible,” he told
2016, reaching 58.74% through a series of acqui- CBC News.
sitions. The company is also operator of the Fort Imperial, meanwhile, said it would relin-
Hills project, as well as its oil sands base plant and quish its contract to provide business manage-
in-situ assets. ment services to Syncrude once Suncor takes
Bi-directional pipelines connecting Sun- over as operator. Under the contract, staff from
cor’s base plant to Syncrude facilities have Imperial were seconded to certain positions at
been built and are now being commissioned, Syncrude and used to assist in implementing
which is expected to result in increased inte- strategies. The contract has been in place for
gration and operational flexibility between around 14 years.™

Venture Global picks Plaquemines contractor

LOUISIANA US-BASED Venture Global LNG announced time that the design of the trains would enable
this week that it had awarded the engineering, the company to achieve the “fastest construction
procurement and construction (EPC) contract schedule in the LNG industry” while driving risk
for the first phase of the proposed Plaquemines reductions across the entire project.
LNG export terminal in Louisiana to KBR. The company aims to use its experience of
In a November 23 statement, Venture Global constructing Calcaseiu Pass to drive further
said KBR would integrate “highly modularised, improvements at Plaquemines LNG if it goes
owner-furnished equipment” at Plaquemines ahead.
LNG. The equipment is identical to the systems “KBR has an exceptional record in the LNG
Venture Global is currently being installed at Venture Global’s industry, having designed and delivered approxi-
replicating its design Calcasieu Pass LNG facility, also in Louisana. mately a third of the liquefaction capacity world-
of Calcasieu Pass LNG There are 18 mid-scale, modular liquefaction wide,” stated Sabel this week. “They recognise
with the Plaquemines trains being manufactured in a factory setting that our innovation of mid-scale, modular trains
project. and delivered complete to the Calcasieu Pass manufactured in a factory setting and delivered
site for installation. A further 18 trains would complete to site is revolutionising this industry.”
be installed at Plaquemines if that project goes Venture Global has signed binding 20-year
ahead. Both facilities have a design capacity of offtake agreements with Poland’s PGNiG and
10mn tonnes per year (tpy). France’s EDF for a combined 3.5mn tpy of the
For Calcasieu Pass, the trains are being Plaquemines terminal’s capacity, with PGNiG
built by Baker Hughes, and Venture Global committing to 2.5mn tpy and EDF to 1mn
announced earlier in November that the first tpy. The company is currently anticipating a
two 600,000 tpy trains had been delivered to final investment decision (FID) on the pro-
the facility’s site in Louisana’s Cameron Parish ject around mid-2021, with start-up following
ahead of schedule. Venture Global’s executive in 2024. Calcasieu Pass is anticipated to come
co-chairman and CEO, Mike Sabel, said at the online in late 2022.™

Week 47 26•November•2020 www. NEWSBASE .com P15