As detailed engineering progresses, Canada's Imperial Oil is evaluating plant contractor bids following its decision to rekindle plans to construct a $2-billion expansion to its Cold Lake facility operation in northeastern Alberta's oil-sands region. The revised plan includes a 170-MW cogeneration facility and a bitumen-processing plant to go on line by the end of 2014.
The Nabiye development was originally proposed in 2001 and given regulatory approval in 2004, but Imperial shelved the work to focus on other Cold Lake projects. Engineering restarted in 2008, and Imperial received amended approval in 2010.