Fears Growing in Wake of Expected 50% Cost Increase at Shell Oilsands Plant

Edmonton Journal – Bob Gillon, an energy analyst with John S Herold in Connecticut, said the Athabasca expansion would now cost six times what the original project did, on a daily flowing barrel basis.

“It’s not a knock on Shell or this project, everybody’s facing it,” Gillon said in an interview Thursday.

“But my Lord in heaven. If you’re talking about something that cost you six times as much as it did six or eight years ago, even with the move we’ve had in oil prices, we’re getting these things back to where the economics . . . are going to get skinny in a hurry.”
Edmonton Journal