Suncor to Invest $20 Billion in Oil Sands

Canada’s Suncor Energy has said it will spend C$20.6 billion on an expansion scheme that will make it the biggest producer in the oil sands of northern Alberta.

Suncor’s board of directors gave the go-ahead for the Voyageur project, a 200,000 barrel-a-day expansion of the company’s already massive oil sands operations near Fort McMurray, Alberta. Voyageur will boost output to 550,000 barrels a day when complete in 2012.

The project is the latest of more than C$100 billion worth of plans to tap the oil sands to feed demand from U.S. refiners for Canadian oil.

Suncor has been planning Voyageur since 2003, but has held off committing to the expansion so it could firm up its planning and avoid the multibillion-dollar budget overruns that have plagued earlier expansions by the company and its rivals.

So its lets mine Alberta flat, no matter what happens to the climate.