(Photo supplied: The Hangingstone site is 20 kilometres southwest of Fort McMurray. Athabasca Oil Corporation).
Construction is over at a thermal oilsands site south of Fort McMurray. The Financial Post reports first steam started March 23 at the Hangingstone site.
Athabasca Oil Corporation’s expects to produce 12,000 barrels per day at the site late next year.
The company expects first oil within six months and it could reach the halfway mark for capacity by the end of 2015.
The SAGD project was approved in 2012 and the company committed $536 million for the facilities, plus another $27 million for supporting infrastructure.
There’s plans for two more thermal projects in the area, which would bring total capacity to more than 80,000 barrels per day.
