Curtailment uncertainty has Imperial Oil slowing $2.6 billion project

Uncertainty over the Alberta government’s oil production curtailment program and other challenges is expected to delay a major oilsands project by at least a year.

Imperial Oil says it’s slowing development of its 2-point-6 billion-dollar Aspen in-situ project, which was supposed to come on stream in 2022.

Imperial gave the green light to the project last November after receiving provincial approval, but that was before the Notley government announced its production curtailment program starting January 1st.

Chairman Rich Kruger says in a statement that the decision to delay was a difficult one but the company cannot invest billions of dollars, given the uncertainty in the current business environment.