Name and Location
PR Spring oil sands project, Utah, US.

Client
US Oil Sands.

Project Description
US Oil Sands’ board of directors has approved the final investment decision to proceed with the construction of an enhanced Phase 1 project at its PR Spring project. The added design enhancements will enable US Oil Sands to obtain high bitumen recovery from a broader range of oil sand ores, demonstrating the suitability of the process for expansion across the company’s Utah leases and potentially to Canada, as well as to other deposits worldwide.

Phase 1 is designed to produce about 2 000 bbl/d of bitumen.

Value
The estimated capital cost of Phase 1 is $60-million.

Duration
Phase 1 is expected to achieve commercial production in the second half of 2015.

Latest Developments
US Oil Sands has committed about $17.9-million in orders for all the major equipment components required to build its flagship PR Spring oil sands project.

With the long-lead items currently on order, engineering and site construction remains on schedule for field commissioning in the third quarter of next year.

To date, the company has substantially completed construction of the plant site and has started foundation and building construction. US Oil Sands says its procurement and supply chain management group, working closely with its project and construction services manager, Kellogg Brown & Root’s (KBR’s) Salt Lake City-based team, has been successful in maintaining or reducing delivery times on this equipment, which is critical to meeting scheduled field-delivery dates.

Every significant piece of the process equipment has been evaluated to ensure best process performance, delivery time and cost. Overall project engineering is being performed by KBR, with Stantec and Norwest Corp contributing environmental and mine engineering respectively. The company hopes to complete construction of a warehouse before year-end, while utility supply infrastructure and roadways have been completed. For the remainder of 2014, the company will continue to focus on detailed engineering of the modules. Management expects that the off-site fabrication of the process extraction plant will start in the first quarter next year, with final off-site fabrication and field assembly scheduled for mid-2015, followed by commissioning and commercial start-up.

Key Contracts and Suppliers
KBR (project and construction management services), Stantec (environmental engineering) and Norwest (mine engineering).

On Budget and on Time?
Not stated.

Contact Details for Project Information
US Oil Sands, tel +1 403 233 9366, fax +1 587 353 5373 or email info@usoilsandsinc.com.
KBR media enquiries, email MediaRelations@KBR.com.
Stantec, tel +1 780 917 7000 or email media@stantec.com.
Norwest Corp, tel +1 801 539 0044, fax +1 801 539 0055 or email slc@norwestcorp.com.