Syncrude and the oil sands: Meeting the needs of North American refiners

Conference · Sun Dec 31 04:00:00 EST 1995

OSTI ID:269521

Purdy, C T ^[1]

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1. Syncrude Canada Ltd., Alberta (Canada)

Crude oil production from Canada`s oil sands deposits in northern Alberta is a light, sweet, high quality crude oil and compares favourably with conventional light sweet crude oils. During 1994, a record 95.6 million barrels or an average of 262,000 barrels per day of primarily light, sweet crude oil was shipped from Syncrude and Suncor, the two plants that mine, extract, and upgrade oil sands from the Athabasca region. This is 6.9% higher than the previous year and 27% higher than just five years ago. A number of refiners in Canada as well as the northern portion of the United States have been processing crude oil from the oil sands for many years now. As production increases, existing customers continue to see value added by incorporating additional volumes into their crude slates and new customers are also realizing the positive benefits from processing crude oil from the oil sands. Favourable attributes of crude oil from the oil sands include its low sulphur level, lack of resid or bottoms content and very low diesel pour point. The less desirable features relate primarily to the higher aromatic content in the distillate and vacuum gas oil fractions, which lead to lower diesel cetane number and jet smoke point and potentially lower cat cracker conversion. In meeting the needs of refiners in North America, Syncrude has implemented improved quality control measures and strengthened communications with its customers. The existing and potential refining markets have recently been surveyed to better understand their needs. Finally, with an eye to the future, Syncrude is monitoring trends such as the declining domestic supplies of conventional crude oils and the impact that environmental legislation has on petroleum product specifications, allowing better understanding of how we can best meet market needs in the future. Presently, we are developing a number of processing and investment options that would address these uncertain future challenges.

• OSTI ID: 269521
• Report Number(s): CONF-9502114--Vol.1
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

04 OIL SHALES AND TAR SANDS
ALBERTA
BITUMENS
COMPARATIVE EVALUATIONS
ENHANCED RECOVERY
MARKETING
OIL SAND DEPOSITS
PRODUCTION
QUALITY CONTROL
REFINING
RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT