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For the trade press
Siemens building pilot installation for bitumen extraction in Canada
Frankfurt/Main 2006-03-09
Industry Press Conference
The pilot installation will be used to extract bitumen from the oil
sands in the Province of Alberta in an economically efficient and
environment-friendly manner. There are also plans to construct a plant
at a later date that will have an initial production of 50,000 barrels
of bitumen per day, rising to 190,000 barrels by 2010. Siemens
Industrial Solutions and Services (I&S) is supplying all the
electrical engineering equipment and the automation system for the
installation. The construction and process-related contract sections of
the installation are in the hands of SNC Lavalin Ltd.
In the sand deposits of Canada, there are enormous oil reserves which are to be
extracted by means of special methods in the coming years and converted into,
for instance, diesel, aviation gasoline or intermediate chemical products. These
oil reserves are regarded as the second largest in the world after those of
Saudi Arabia.
The pilot installation will process the oil sand, extract the bitumen
and process it to produce synthetic crude oil which can then be further
processed in a refinery. The warm bitumen will be diluted with hydrocarbon and
the resulting synthetic oil will be transported by pipeline to refineries in
Canada and the USA.
The pilot installation will be used to demonstrate that the methods it
employs are capable of extracting more bitumen from the oil sand than
conventional processes have previously been able to and that they result in less
sandy liquid waste. Another objective is to make more efficient use of energy
and to reduce the consumption of process water. In this way, greater economic
efficiency in the production of bitumen can be achieved and at the same time the
environment polluted to a lesser extent. In order to optimize the pilot
installation and its components as well as all aspects of processing, Siemens is
supplying a Simatic PCS 7 process control system, the low-voltage switchgear,
the electrical drives and all the field instrumentation based on Profibus PA/DP.
Siemens I&S is installing the technical components, is responsible for project
management and will also, when it is finished, commission the installation. With
the PCS 7 process control system, the operating states possible in a pilot
installation can be simulated and optimized in a simple and straightforward
manner in order to train the personnel and prepare them for the everyday aspects
of operating the equipment. The pilot operation phase in the winter months of
2005/2006 will take place with outdoor temperatures down to minus 40 degrees
Celsius, thus placing very high demands on materials and personnel.
Further information under:
 http://www.industry.siemens.com/oil-gas
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