Peace River Operations

Location: The Shell Peace River Complex is located in northern Alberta, about 40 km northeast of Peace River.

Employees: The Peace River Complex employs about 100 people.

Capacity: The plant is currently licensed to produce 12,500 barrels (2,000 cubic metres) of bitumen per day annual average. Bitumen is a form of crude oil that’s so heavy it has to be heated, diluted or processed with lighter hydrocarbons in order to flow through pipelines

Products: Bitumen and asphalt.

Bitumen
The bitumen is blended with locally supplied condensates for pipeline injection. The bitumen blend stream is marketed to refiners with heavy oil refining capabilities and is a preferred feedstock for producing asphalt.

Operations
The oil sands beneath our Peace River leases contain several billion barrels of bitumen in place. We currently use both cold and thermal recovery techniques to extract bitumen from these leases. Cold production can be used on areas of the reservoir where the bitumen is mobile enough to be pumped to the surface unaided by steam. Shell operates two cold production facilities on its leases: the Seal and Cliffdale batteries.

Shell began producing bitumen from its Peace River oil sands leases in 1979 with the Peace River In Situ Pilot project (PRISP). The Peace River Complex, which began operations in 1986, produces bitumen using thermal recovery methods. In thermal or enhanced oil recovery, steam-generated heat and pressure warm the bitumen to allow it to be pumped to surface. Shell is continuing work to prepare and submit a regulatory application for an 80,000-barrels-per-day thermal expansion project, called the Carmon Creek Project, by the end of 2009.

Shell has operated an In situ Upgrading Process (IUP) field test on a small portion of its Peace River leases since 2004. IUP is a Shell-patented technology that heats the reservoir with electrical heaters to convert the heavy oil into lighter crude oil and gas while still underground. To date, the IUP pilot has produced more than 100,000 barrels of light oil. The purpose of this pilot is to test the recovery efficiency of the technology in an oil sands reservoir. The technology is still under development and Shell is currently evaluating next steps.

Contact Us
To contact the Peace River Complex call (780) 624-6800.

If you need to report an emergency call 9-1-1 and (780) 624-3547.

We welcome your comments and feed back. Please contact our Shell Helps team for general information about Shell Canada at the information below. We are committed to providing our customers with superior customer service.

Customer Service
By phone: 1-800-661-1600 Monday to Friday 6:00am - 6:00pm MST

By e-mail: enquiries-ca@shell.com

In January 2010, Shell submitted a regulatory application for the Carmon Creek Project. To obtain a copy of the application on CD please send an e-mail to carmoncreek@shell.com or call toll-free 1-877-347-4355. This mailbox is monitored on a weekly basis.

A Public Information Document (PDF, 1392 KB) provides more information on the proposed expansion.

January 11, 2010
Carmon Creek Project Regulatory Application Volume 1: Project Description
Executive Summary; Guide to the Application; Project Overview (PDF, 5659 KB)
Project Overview continued (PDF, 3258 KB)
Project Overview continued; Geology (PDF, 3509 KB)
Geology continued (PDF, 3389 KB)
Geology continued (PDF, 2101 KB)
Geology continued (PDF, 2022 KB)
Resource Base (PDF, 3089 KB)
Resource Base continued (PDF, 3537 KB)
Recovery Process; Field Facilities; Processing Facilities (PDF, 3104 KB)
Processing Facilities continued; Utilities and Offsites (PDF, 3273 KB)
Infrastructure; Public Consultation Program; Waste Management; HSE Management; Environmental Management; EIA Summary; Glossary (PDF, 2912 KB)

Carmon Creek Project Regulatory Application Volume II Part A: Environmental Impact Assessment (Air, Climate, Noise and Human Health)
Executive Summary: Air, Climate, Noise and Human Health (PDF, 4814 KB)
Air Quality (PDF, 5282 KB)
Climate; Noise (PDF, 5820 KB)
Noise continued (PDF, 7165 KB)
Noise continued; Human Health Risk Assessment (PDF, 2821 KB)

Carmon Creek Project Regulatory Application Volume II Part B: Environmental Impact Assessment (Aquatic Resources)
Aquatic Resources (PDF, 13825 KB)
Hydrogeology continued (PDF, 9498 KB)
Appendices (PDF, 10382 KB)
Hydology; Surface Water Quality (PDF, 7662 KB)
Aquatic Ecology (PDF, 11740 KB)
Aquatic Ecology continued (PDF, 10802 KB)
Aquatic Ecology continued (PDF, 10827 KB)
Aquatic Ecology continued (PDF, 11351 KB)
Aquatic Ecology continued (PDF, 13841 KB)
Aquatic Ecology continued (PDF, 2847 KB)

Carmon Creek Project Regulatory Application Volume II Part C: Environmental Impact Assessment (Terrestrial Resources)
Terrestrial Resources; Soils and Terrain (PDF, 15500 KB)
Soils and Terrain continued (PDF, 12448 KB)
Soils and Terrain continued (PDF, 14368 KB)
Soils and Terrain continued (PDF, 15724 KB)
Soils and Terrain continued (PDF, 12229 KB)
Vegetation continued (PDF, 11304 KB)
Vegetation continued (PDF, 9204 KB)
Vegetation continued (PDF, 11567 KB)
Wildlife (PDF, 11322 KB)
Wildlife continued (PDF, 11720 KB)
Wildlife continued (PDF, 10642 KB)
Wildlife continued (PDF, 7199 KB)
Biodiversity (PDF, 10835 KB)
Biodiversity continued; Conservation and Reclamation (PDF, 9879 KB)

Carmon Creek Project Regulatory Application Volume II Part D: Environmental Impact Assessment (Socio-Economics, Cultural Resources and Land use)
Socio-Economics; Cultural Resources and Land Use (PDF, 6326 KB)
Appendices (PDF, 6999 KB)
Historic Resources; Traditional Ecological Knowledge and Land Use; Land and Resource Use; Appendix (PDF, 5576 KB)

Carmon Creek Project Supplemental Information
Carmon Creek Project Supplemental Information Round 1 January 2011 (PDF, 73667 KB)
Carmon Creek Project Supplemental Information Round 2 September 2011 (PDF, 59466 KB)

Shell produces bitumen from its Peace River oil sands leases using both cold and thermal production techniques. The recovery method used depends on how mobile the bitumen. Cold or primary recovery methods can be used in areas of the reservoir where the bitumen is less viscous or thick and doesn’t require heating by steam to make it fluid enough to be pumped to the surface. 

The Cliffdale Battery is a bitumen production facility located southeast of Shell’s thermal Peace River Complex. This cold production facility started up in 2007. It employs about 22 workers and has capacity to produce about 27,000 barrels per day of bitumen.  The facility is operated and owned 100 per cent by Shell. At the beginning of 2008 there were approximately 75 producing wells in the Cilffdale area of Shell’s Peace River leases.

The Seal Battery and associated leases are located in the Peace River oil sands. The area was previously known to contain heavy oil but prior to 1999 the conventional view was that the oil was not mobile and that it required a thermal operation to access it. An initial horizontal test well confirmed that there were areas where the oil was mobile enough to produce using conventional primary or cold production means.

A 10,000 barrel-per-day facility was constructed in 2003 and was later expanded. The current capacity of the Seal Battery is about 23,000 barrels per day. Shell has a 50 per cent interest in this facility and operates it.