Mobil Oil to construct oil steam plant near Cold Lake

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COLD LAKE - Mobil Oil has announced it will spend $12 million constructing a heavy oil steam stimulation plant near its existing Iron River battery west of Cold Lake. The project is slated to begin a six-month construction phase in June 1987 and at its peak will employ about 50 people.

Susan Sherk, Mobil's Calgary-based public affairs manager, said the company is putting together a bidder's lift for the construction contracts. She said local contractors will be considered as much as possible and the labor force should be entirely from the Lakeland area. However, once the project is completed in early 1988, no new jobs will be created. "We already have the staff to man the project," she said. The purpose for the plant is to provide Mobil with technical information for possible full-scale development of its Cold Lake resources. The project's 1,450 barrels-a-day production will be trucked to a nearby Husky facility for processing. The same workers who are servicing the existing battery will take over operations of the new site.

Local MLA Ernie Isley said in an interview with the grand Centre Cold Lake 'Sun' this project will provide a psychological boost to the areas economy even though it is not a large-scale undertaking. "It isn't a massive development that will create a lot of jobs," he pointed out, "but it is the first permanent development by the second-larges leaseholder in this area." Esso Resources (Canada) Ltd. is the largest. He said he looks upon the Mobil announcement as a sign that the local oil industry will turn around next year.

This announcement follows on the heels of a strong indication BP Canada will go ahead with a $250 million expansion of its Wolf Lake project next year besides Esso's planned $400 million expansion of its oil plant. Both of these will open up large-scale construction opportunities for the local people.