US Oil Sands provides update on PR Spring project

US Oil Sands Inc. a company focused on oil sands exploration and production in Utah today announced that it has now ordered all of the major equipment components required for construction of the PR Spring Project. The company has committed approximately US$ 17.9 million to the purchase of this equipment, engineering and site construction and remains on schedule for field commissioning in Q3 2015. The company has substantially completed construction of the plant site and has initiated foundation and building construction.

“The procurement of long-lead equipment is an important achievement for US Oil Sands as we transition from substantive engineering and design efforts to initiating physical construction of the extraction plant,” said Cameron Todd, CEO of US Oil Sands.  “It’s an exciting time for the company as we deploy our capital towards creating a low capital cost and environmentally-sustainable oil sands mining project with game-changing potential.”  

Project commitments of US$ 17.9 million to date include:

Process extraction equipment, including all long-lead items. The company’s procurement and supply chain management group, working closely with its project and construction services manager, Kellogg Brown & Root LLC’s Salt Lake City-based team, have been successful in holding or reducing delivery times on this equipment, a key towards meeting scheduled field delivery dates. Every major piece of process equipment has been evaluated to ensure best process performance, delivery-time and cost. 

Engineering; overall project engineering is being performed by KBR with Stantec and Norwest contributing environmental and mine engineering respectively.

Field work; work performed has been focused on preparing the plant-site to accept delivery of process extraction equipment modules, including the construction of a warehouse prior to year-end. Additionally, utility supply infrastructure and roadways have been completed.

“We have been diligent in the engineering and procurement process such that in addition to keeping ontarget with our schedule, we’ve continued to optimise the Project’s design with resultant operational and environmental benefits,” said Mr. Todd. “This is evident in the decision to replace the plant’s power supply with natural gas-fired turbines that incorporate improved heat recovery from electrical power cogeneration. These improvements will reduce the use of fuel, further enhancing the Project’s already best in-class environmental profile.”

Outlook

For the remainder of 2014, the Company will continue to focus on detailed engineering of the modules.

Management anticipates that the off-site fabrication of the process extraction plant will begin in the first quarter of 2015, with final off-site fabrication and field assembly occurring in mid-2015, followed by commissioning and commercial start-up.

Adapted from a press release by David Bizley

Read the article online at: https://www.oilfieldtechnology.com/drilling-and-production/13102014/us-oil-sands-provides-update-on-pr-spring-project/