Fort McKay First Nation to put $350M into Suncor oilsands tank farm

$1B storage facility part of $13.5B project that is expected to begin producing first oil in late 2017

The Canadian Press, September 6, 2016

Suncor Energy is bringing in a northern Alberta aboriginal band as partner in a $1-billion storage facility being built to serve its Fort Hills oilsands project.

The Calgary-based company says the Fort McKay First Nation will pay about $350 million when its new tank farm becomes operational next spring in return for a 34 per cent interest.

Suncor cutting 1,000 jobs, taking $1 billion out of 2015 budget

CALGARY — Suncor Energy Inc. (TSX:SU), known for its huge presence in Alberta’s oilsands, is reducing its workforce by 1,000 and cutting $1 billion from its capital budget as the company grapples with plummeting crude prices.

Calgary-based Suncor says the job cuts will mainly affect contractors, but include some employee positions as well. In its most recent annual report, Suncor said it had 13,946 employees.

In November, Suncor predicted capital spending for 2015 would range between $7.2 billion and $7.8 billion. At the time, crude was around US$75 a barrel, and the OPEC oil cartel had not yet announced its intention to maintain its output rather than cut it to support prices.

Bear attack at Suncor site kills 1 worker

CBC News, May 07, 2014

A Suncor employee has been killed by a bear at the company’s Oil Sands base, 25 kilometres north of Fort McMurray, Alta.

The RCMP say they were called just after 2 p.m. MT Wednesday after receiving reports of a large, male black bear attacking and killing a worker at the Suncor base camp.

The female worker was declared dead on the scene.

The Oilsands: First Nations struggle to save traditions while profiting from boom

Tar Sands in northern Alberta.

By Marty Klinkenberg, Edmonton Journal, December 15, 2013

FORT CHIPEWYAN — On a hill overlooking Lake Athabasca, the big water that sustained their forefathers for 9,000 years, a dozen residents of Fort Chipewyan gather in a teepee with the legs and shoulders of a freshly killed caribou before them.