The Royal Dutch/Shell Group is gearing up to tackle one of the biggest and costliest projects in oilpatch and Canadian construction history. The company announced on 30 July that it has filed a regulatory application to build a new upgrader east of Edmonton to serve its oilsands expansion projects in northern Alberta and that the cost could run as high as CAD 27 billion. The Scotford Upgrader 2 will have a total capacity of up to 400,000bpd and will be built in four phases, taking as long as two decades to complete. It will be located adjacent to Shell’s existing upgrader near Fort Saskatchewan. Shell’s Public Affairs manager Janet Annesley said construction work on the first phase of development could start as early as 2009, pending regulatory approvals and final project cost. The second upgrader will draw bitumen feedstock from the 250,000bpd future expansion of the Athabasca Oil Sands Project as well as Shell’s in-situ Peace River and Cold Lake mining projects.The Royal Dutch/Shell Group is gearing up to tackle one of the biggest and costliest projects in oilpatch and Canadian construction history. The company announced on 30 July that it has filed a regulatory application to build a new upgrader east of Edmonton to serve its oilsands expansion projects in northern Alberta and that the cost could run as high as CAD 27 billion. The Scotford Upgrader 2 will have a total capacity of up to 400,000bpd and will be built in four phases, taking as long as two decades to complete. It will be located adjacent to Shell’s existing upgrader near Fort Saskatchewan. Shell’s Public Affairs manager Janet Annesley said construction work on the first phase of development could start as early as 2009, pending regulatory approvals and final project cost. The second upgrader will draw bitumen feedstock from the 250,000bpd future expansion of the Athabasca Oil Sands Project as well as Shell’s in-situ Peace River and Cold Lake mining projects.