Investment of $75.7bn on top ten heavy oil and oil sands projects

Over $75.7bn in capital expenditure will be spent over the lifetime of the top ten heavy oil and oil sands projects to produce 8.1 billion barrels of crude oil, according to research and consulting firm GlobalData.

These 10 projects, selected from 63 upcoming heavy oil and oil sands projects globally, will contribute an incremental capacity of 803,549 barrels of oil per day (bd) to global supply by 2025. Telephone Lake (Cenovus Energy Inc.) in Canada is the largest with anticipated peak production at 90,696bd in 2030 at an estimated cost of $10bn.

GlobalData reports the average development breakeven oil price for top upcoming heavy oil and oil sands projects at $58 per barrel. Russia has the highest average break-even of $72 per barrel and Canada has the lowest break-even oil price of $51 per barrel. Oil sands have an average break-even of $52 per barrel, while heavy oil projects have the highest break-even at $72 per barrel.

GlobalData estimates $75.7bn will be spent to bring the top 10 onshore projects online, with $48bn forecast by 2025. Telephone Lake (Cenovus Energy Inc.) development in Canada leads capital investment with $10bn over its development lifetime, followed by Canada’s Fort Hills (Suncor Energy Inc.) oil sands project with $9bn. Differentiating for project type, GlobalData expects full-cycle capital expenditure per barrel of oil equivalent to average $9.1 for oil sands among top 10 projects, and $9.6 for heavy oil developments.