Athabasca Oil Sands Project (AOSP)

Canadian Natural Resources Limited operates the AOSP upstream mining assets, and Shell operates the Scotford Upgrader and  Quest Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) project, located next to the 100% Shell-affiliate-owned Scotford refinery and chemicals plants.

The respective ownership interests of AOSP assets in aggregate, directly and indirectly, are 70% Canadian Natural Resources Limited and an affiliate, 20% Chevron Canada Limited and 10% Shell Canada Limited through certain subsidiaries.

Key facts

Location: Alberta, Canada

Muskeg River Mine: Start-up 2003; 155,000 b/d capacity

Jackpine Mine: Start-up 2010; 100,000 b/d capacity

Scotford Upgrader: Start-up 2003; 300,000 b/d capacity

Quest Carbon Capture and Storage Project: Start-up 2015; designed to capture and store over 1 million tonnes of CO₂ each year.

Current developments

On March 9, 2017, Shell announced it would sell all of its in-situ and undeveloped oil sands interests in Canada and reduce its share in the Athabasca Oil Sands Project (AOSP) from 60% to 10%. Shell will remain as operator of AOSP’s Scotford upgrader and Quest carbon capture and storage (CCS) project. These transactions were completed on May 31, 2017.

Find out more about the deal and its completion.