Canadian Oil Sands Provides Information on Process Incident at Syncrude Upgrader

Early on August 29, a process fire occurred in the interconnecting piping between the hydrotreating units and environmental units at Syncrude's Mildred Lake upgrader. Emergency personnel quickly responded to the incident and safely extinguished the fire. No injuries were associated with the event and there was no environmental impact.

Syncrude is currently developing a full recovery plan, beginning with an investigation to determine the cause of the incident. The main coker conversion units were not damaged and Syncrude continues to operate, however, synthetic crude oil production has been temporarily suspended while a recovery and repair strategy are being developed.

Canadian Oil Sands maintains US$1.65 billion of combined property and business interruption insurance, with repairs for damaged plant and equipment subject to a $US nine million deductible, net to Canadian Oil Sands.

Canadian Oil Sands will provide more information, including an assessment of the estimated production and cost impact, when available.

Located near Fort McMurray, Alberta, Syncrude Canada operates oil-sands mines and an upgrading facility that produces a light, sweet crude oil on behalf of its joint venture owners, which include Canadian Oil Sands Limited (36.74 percent), Imperial Oil Resources (25 percent), Suncor Energy Ventures Partnership (12 percent), Sinopec Oil Sands Partnership (9.03 percent), Nexen Oil Sands Partnership (7.23 percent), Mocal Energy Limited (5 percent), Murphy Oil Company Ltd. (5 percent).