Grizzly Oil Sands Awards $4 Million+ Order to Rockwell Automation
SAGD technology lowers Canadian oil sands production costs using PlantPAx process automation system
MILWAUKEE - Grizzly Oil Sands, an Alberta, Canada, independent oil sands company, has awarded a $4 million+ order to Rockwell Automation (NYSE: ROK) and its Global Solutions team. Global Solutions will use the Rockwell Automation PlantPAx process automation system to help Grizzly produce more than 5,000 barrels of oil per day at the first phase of its Algar Lake Project. The solution supports steam-assisted gravity drainage (SAGD), an enhanced oil-recovery technology for producing heavy crude oil and bitumen.
"SAGD production has recently surpassed all other methods of in-situ oil sands recovery. We continue to look for ways to advance our ideas and optimize our efforts to recover bitumen from the one trillion barrels of oil in the Athabasca Oil Sands deposit," said Brian Harrison, vice president, Engineering, Grizzly Oil Sands. Grizzly has developed a unique facilities model, Advanced Relocatable Modular Standard development, to reduce costs, risks and environmental footprint associated with in-situ thermal development. "For our unique Grizzly facility model we needed an advanced, integrated process and motor control system that would monitor multiple SAGD sites from one central location, now and as we expand."
A shadow control room, built on a virtualized computing environment, will be developed at Grizzly's Calgary, Alberta headquarters to monitor and control our current and future oil sites across northern Alberta, according to Harrison. "This unique, open architecture is an important reason Rockwell Automation won the order," he said.
The project also includes project management and engineering services, low- and medium-voltage motor control centers, and a PowerFlex 7000 medium-voltage variable frequency drive.
"This is a major win for us in the oil sands market, and an important win for our PlantPAx and the Rockwell Automation Integrated Architecture platform," said Terry Gebert, vice president and general manager, Rockwell Automation Global Solutions. "It includes architecture, software and power control in one solution, utilizing a major process automation system designed to improve plantwide optimization and reduce extraction costs. Our experience, oil and gas domain expertise, and global resources will help Grizzly Oil Sands run a profitable and sustainable operation."
Endress+Hauser, a global provider of process field instrumentation and plant-asset management solutions, was tapped as a member of the Rockwell Automation PartnerNetwork framework to provide instrumentation to complement its asset management solution.
"This combination of systems and products, together with experience and knowledge, will help Grizzly reduce integration costs throughout engineering, commissioning and startup," said Gebert. "It's how our PartnerNetwork framework adds customer value by helping deliver complete solutions."
About Grizzly Oil Sands
Grizzly Oil Sands is an Alberta, Canada corporation formed in 2006 for the acquisition, exploration and development of bitumen production using thermal technologies. Grizzly holds one of the largest oil sand lease positions in Alberta among independent development-stage oil sands companies with over 700,000 net acres of oil sands leases and permits.
About Rockwell Automation Global Solutions
The thousands of engineers on Rockwell Automation Global Solutions team design, build and upgrade control, safety and information solutions for manufacturing clients. Working in tandem with the scalable PartnerNetwork framework, the company's global solutions business can address a wide range of projects including challenging multimillion dollar enterprise projects that span two or more countries. Clients include: oil and gas, petrochemicals, consumer industries, life sciences, automotive, tire and heavy industries such as: cement, metals, mining, pulp and paper, and power utilities.
About Rockwell Automation
Rockwell Automation, Inc. (NYSE: ROK), the world's largest company dedicated to industrial automation and information, makes its customers more productive and the world more sustainable. Headquartered in Milwaukee, Wis., Rockwell Automation employs over 20,000 people serving customers in more than 80 countries.
For more information:
o oilandgas.rockwellautomation.com
o http://rockwellautomation.com/go/prps
Media contacts:
Keith Lester
Rockwell Automation
414-382-4871
klester@ra.rockwell.com
Sarah Riley
Padilla Speer Beardsley Inc.
612-455-1728
sriley@padillaspeer.com
1201 South Second Street
Milwaukee, WI 53204
www.rockwellautomation.com
