The Kirby In Situ Oil Sands Project is located in Townships 72, 73, 74 and 75, Ranges 6, 7, 8 and 9, West of the 4th Meridian. CNRL has applied under OSCA and EPEA for approval of the Kirby North Light Hydrocarbon Recovery Facility in the Kirby North Development Area. The proposed addition of the Kirby North Light Hydrocarbon Recovery Facility includes the installation, commissioning, and operation of facilities to recover light hydrocarbon, after it has been co-injected with steam, from produced bitumen emulsion and annulus gas for re‐injection into the reservoir.
Oil & Gas Permits
CNRL Wells Spud Since 2020
Canadian Natural’s primary heavy crude oil operations are centered on the Alberta – Saskatchewan border, near the city of Lloydminster. The Company’s extensive and dominant land base allows us to conduct large scale drilling and development programs while minimizing our capital cost requirements. Costs are further managed through owning and operating centralized treating and sand handling facilities, maximizing their utilization and using our size to achieve economies of scale. Our infrastructure includes fifteen crude oil processing facilities and eight salt caverns for solids disposal. 100% ownership of the ECHO sales pipeline allows us to deliver undiluted heavy crude oil into our blending facilities at Hardisty, Alberta.
Canadian Natural holds some of the best thermal in situ oil sands assets in Canada, providing tremendous value and growth potential. Our thermal assets are located in two of the major oil sands deposits in Western Canada – the Athabasca and the Cold Lake deposits. Canadian Natural’s oil sands deposits are in the form of bitumen, which in its natural state is too viscous to flow. When bitumen is too deep (>80 m) to economically mine, steam is injected to warm the bitumen, reducing the viscosity and allowing it to be pumped through surface wells. Only about 7% of Canada’s oil sands can be mined; the majority has to be recovered using thermal in situ recovery.
CNRL Energy News
