Calgary-based Cenovus says it has reached a significant milestone with one billion barrels of cumulative production from its Foster Creek and Christina Lake oil sands facilities in northern Alberta.
It said it’s the first company to produce one billion barrels of oil using steam-assisted gravity drainage (SAGD) technology.
“This incredible achievement for Cenovus represents over 20 years of hard work, perseverance and innovation by our staff members, both past and present,” said Alex Pourbaix, Cenovus president and chief executive officer, in a statement.
“Thanks to their efforts, we can proudly say today that we are an industry leader, that our oil sands projects have made a significant contribution to the Canadian economy, and that Cenovus’s oil is among the most responsibly produced oil on the planet.”
The company said Foster Creek began producing oil as a pilot under a predecessor company in 1997 and in 2001 became the first commercial oil sands project to use SAGD, while Christina Lake began producing oil in 2002.
“Since construction on the facilities began, Foster Creek and Christina Lake have created thousands of jobs and contributed over $25 billion in capital spending to the Canadian economy. Since Cenovus launched as an independent company nearly a decade ago, its oil sands operations have generated about $3.2 billion in royalty payments for the government of Alberta,” said Cenovus.
“Over the last five years, the company has established itself as an oil sands industry cost leader, achieving a 70 per cent reduction in sustaining capital costs and a 45 per cent reduction in operating costs. And since 2004, Cenovus has reduced its per-barrel greenhouse gas emissions by about one-third. Today, the carbon emissions from the production of a barrel of Cenovus’s oil are below the average barrel produced globally and are among the lowest in the oil sands industry.”
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