Page 14 - AIF - English

NARRATIVE DESCRIPTION OF SUNCOR’S BUSINESSES

Oil Sands

For a discussion of the environmental and other regulatory capital replacement, which are expected to improve
conditions, and competitive conditions and seasonal reliability and operational efficiency. Production

impacts affecting our Oil Sands segment, refer to the however, is impacted during the turnaround cycle.
Industry Conditions and Risk Factors sections of this AIF.
Planned maintenance events generally occur on routine

cycles, determined by historical operating performance,
Oil Sands Base Operations
recommended usage factors or regulatory

Our integrated Oil Sands Base operations, located in the requirements. A turnaround typically involves shutting
Wood Buffalo region of northeast Alberta, involve down the unit, inspecting it for wear or other damage,

numerous activities:
repairing or replacing components, and then restarting
the unit.
• Mining and Extraction

After overburden is removed, open-pit mining • Reclamation

operations use shovels to excavate oil sands bitumen Mining processes disturb areas of land that must be
ore, which is trucked to sizers and breaker units that reclaimed. Land reclamation activities involve soil

reduce the size of the ore. Next, a slurry of hot water, salvage and replacement, wetlands research, the
sand and bitumen is created and delivered via a protection of fish, waterfowl and other wildlife and

pipeline to extraction plants. The raw bitumen is re-vegetation.
separated from the slurry using a hot water process
The extraction process produces tailings that are a
that creates a bitumen froth. Naphtha is added to the mixture of water, clay, sand and residual bitumen.
bitumen froth to form a diluted bitumen, which is
Suncor has developed a tailings management approach,
subsequently sent to a centrifuge plant that removes known as TRO. TROis expected to accelerate and
most of the remaining impurities and minerals. Coarse TMTM
improve the company’s tailings management processes,
tailings produced in this process are placed directly into eliminate the need for new tailings ponds at existing
mine sand dump areas.
mining operations, and, in the years ahead, reduce the
number of tailings ponds presently in operation.
• Upgrading

After the diluted bitumen is transferred to upgrading Oil Sands Base Assets
facilities, the naphtha is removed and recycled to be
Mining and Extraction
used again as diluent in extraction processes. Bitumen
is upgraded through a coking and distillation process. Suncor pioneered the commercial development of the
Athabasca oil sands beginning in 1962, achieving first
The upgraded product, referred to as sour SCO, is
either sold or upgraded further into sweet SCO by production in 1967. The original mining area is essentially
depleted, and, for several years, bitumen was mined almost
removing sulphur and nitrogen using a hydrotreating
process. In addition to sweet and sour SCO, upgrading exclusively from the Millennium area, which began
production in 2001. The company began mining from the
processes also produce diesel and other byproducts.
North Steepbank area in 2011. During 2013, the company
mined approximately 151 million tonnes of bitumen ore
• Utilities
(2012 – 151 million tonnes). During 2013, Suncor
Process water is used in extraction processes and then processed an average of 270 mbbls/d of mined bitumen in
recycled. Steam and electricity are generated through its extraction facilities (2012 – 266 mbbls/d).

facilities on site. Steam required for operations is
generated by a cogeneration unit or coke-fired boilers.
Upgrading
Electricity is generated by turbine generators, some of Suncor’s upgrading facilities consist of two upgraders –
which are part of the Oil Sands Base cogeneration unit,
Upgrader 1, which has a primary upgrading capacity of
or provided by cogeneration units at Firebag.
approximately 110 mbbls/d of SCO, and Upgrader 2, which
has a primary upgrading capacity of approximately
• Maintenance
240 mbbls/d of SCO. Suncor’s secondary upgrading
In the normal course of operations, Suncor regularly facilities consist of three hydrogen plants, three naphtha

conducts planned maintenance events at its facilities. hydrotreaters, two gas oil hydrotreaters, one diesel
Large, planned maintenance events, which require units hydrotreater and one kero hydrotreater.

to be taken offline to be completed, are often referred During 2013, Suncor averaged 283 mbbls/d of upgraded
to as turnarounds. Turnaround maintenance provides
(SCO and diesel) production, sourced from bitumen
opportunities for both preventive maintenance and

12 SUNCOR ENERGY INC. ANNUAL INFORMATION FORM 2014