Canada's Suncor Prepares Oil Sands Growth as Global Majors Exit

Lower costs and smaller projects are crucial for oil sands producers as they struggle to remain competitive with cheaper and faster U.S. shale plays.

In addition to replicating thermal plants a number of companies including Suncor, MEG, Cenovus Energy and Imperial Oil are looking at new ways to improve bitumen extraction by using solvents as well as steam.

Typically, thermal projects involve drilling a pair of wells into an oil sands reservoir and pumping steam through the upper well to liquefy bitumen so it can flow out of the lower well.

The industry is only now is a position where plant replications will work, said Doug Hollies, an engineer with consultancy Codeco Oilsands Engineering in Calgary, who was involved with drilling thermal projects in the early 2000s.

"Back then we did not know what was going to come out of these wells, in every different area (of the oil sands) there would be different product," he said.

"Now that every project virtually has been piloted it's a lot easier to make good engineering decisions and standardise designs." ($1 = 1.3661 Canadian dollars) (Editing by Phil Berlowitz)