In April, Canada metals and mining company Teck Resources announced that it had secured storage and terminal service capacity. This was announced as an important step of Teck’s marketing and logistics plan for its 36 000 bl/d share of bitumen production from the Fort Hills oil sands project,

Teck has reached agreement with Gibson Energy for the construction of a 500 000 bl dedicated storage tank at the Gibson terminal in Hardisty, Alberta, a major hub for pipeline transportation throughout North America, with connectivity to the Enbridge and Keystone export pipelines as well as area unit train loading facilities.

“This agreement marks a critical step in our ongoing work to develop the marketing and logistics plan for our share of production from Fort Hills,” said marketing and sales senior VP Andrew Stonkus.

Stonkus stated that Teck’s focus going forward is on connecting with markets and refineries around the globe, which will provide full value for its high-quality diluted bitumen product and Canadian oil production in general, such as the world’s largest refining complex on the US Gulf Coast.

Teck has a 20% share in the Fort Hills oil sands project alongside its two limited partners, including energy company Total E&P Canada, which owns 39.2%, and the developer and operator, integrated energy company Suncor, which owns 40.8%.

Fort Hills has an estimated proved and probable reserve of 3.07-billion barrels of bitumen as of December 31, 2014.

The project is scheduled to produce first oil as early as the fourth quarter of 2017 and achieve 90% of its planned production capacity of 180 000 bbl/d of bitumen within 12 months. Teck’s share of production is expected to be 36 000 bb/d (13-million barrels a year) of bitumen.

As previously announced, the Fort Hills partners and Enbridge have entered into long-term transportation agreements for the delivery of diluent from Edmonton and blended bitumen to Hardisty.