The first new Albertan oil sands project in eight years is now operational three and a half hours north of Edmonton, near Lac la Biche.The $1.1-billion project, which is called the Blackrod SAGD, which stands for steam-assisted gravity drainage, is expected to produce 30,000 barrels of oil per day. This would represent a close to doubling of Blackrod's current production of 45,000 barrels per day.This is a brand-new facility in a location that has that has never had any large-scale oil extraction operations.This is the first phase of the Blackrod oil sands project, which its owner, International Petroleum Corp. (IPC), sees as the beginning of a transformative new project for the Albertan oil sands industry.“We very much believe in future phase expansions,” IPC CEO William Lundin said during last year's Q1 report. “Blackrod (is) a massive resource base where we have greater than one billion barrels of contingent resources.”.This site is also home to one of the oil sands' longest-running SAGD pilot projects, which has been running since 2011.Although initial expected output will be around 30,000 barrels, according to the Alberta government's major projects map, the project's processing facility will have the capacity to produce 90,000 barrels per day.This highlights the likelihood of expansion of this project and represents the fact that at this current stage the project is only in phase one of what can be assumed to be a multi-phase oil sands expansion.Reports indicate that underground warm-up via steam injection is underway, with first oil expected by the end of September.
