Horizon oilsands project forecast to go $1-billion over budget

TORONTO — Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. expects the cost of its Horizon oilsands project to jump as high as $7.75-billion, nearly $1-billion over budget, as some work gets pushed out into winter, the country’s No. 2 independent producer said on Wednesday.

Canadian Natural said costs could be 8% to 14% above the $6.8-billion it had estimated for the first phase of the northern Alberta mining and synthetic crude processing development, the country’s fourth such project.


But the company said the project is likely to be more than 90% complete by year-end and it remains on track for first oil in the third quarter next year.

“Progress in the third quarter of 2007 did slip against our baseline as a result of distractions resulting from Alberta-wide labour negotiations that occurred throughout the summer,” Canadian Natural vice-president Real Doucet said in a statement.

Reuters