Suncor this week announced that the Syncrude maintenance turnaround originally scheduled to begin in April, will be moved up by approximately one month.

On March 15, Syncrude plans to begin an eight-week turnaround, which was originally scheduled to begin in April. Advancing the turnaround will permit Syncrude to address an unrelated issue which has been constraining capacity on a line that feeds bitumen from the mine to the upgrader. Executing the turnaround and resolving the line issue at the same time will make more efficient use of resources and minimize the overall impact on production.

With the change in turnaround timing, Syncrude production for the first quarter is expected to be reduced to approximately 140,000 barrels of oil per day (bbls/d), net to Suncor. However, Syncrude’s forecasted production for the full year remains within the annual guidance range. 

Oil Sands operations production has benefited from reliable operations at the Firebag and MacKay River in situ plants. However, as discussed on the fourth quarter conference call, base plant operations dealt with a significant, weather-related outage in January, which will reduce first quarter production to approximately 400,000 bbls/d. Base plant operations returned to normal levels in February and are expected to remain at full rates until the planned Upgrader 1 turnaround in the second quarter. 

Fort Hills ramp-up is progressing very well following the start-up of the first secondary extraction train on January 27, 2018. First quarter production is expected to average approximately 25,000 bbls/d, net to Suncor.

Production from Exploration & Production (E&P) is tracking above plan thanks to reliable offshore operations and the accelerated ramp-up of production from Hebron. Total E&P production for the first quarter is estimated at approximately 120,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boe/d).

Suncor expects total upstream production for the first quarter to be approximately 685,000 boe/d and does not anticipate any changes to its overall 2018 production guidance.