Syncrude upgrader to return to full operation by end of June

More than a month after an explosion and fire ripped through part of the Syncrude Mildred Lake oilsands upgrader north of Fort McMurray, the site's main operator says the upgrader will return to full operation by the end of June.

Suncor Energy, the majority stakeholder in Syncrude, said the Mildred Lake oilsands upgrader is currently operating at a reduced rate, but that it does not expect the outage to change Suncor's 2017 oil production targets.

• Fire, explosion atSyncrudeplant north of FortMcMurray

"The investigation and inspection show that damage was largely isolated to a piperack adjacent to the hydrotreater," the company said in a news release Wednesday.

"An accelerated repair schedule has been developed to achieve restart of pipeline shipments at approximately 50 per cent capacity in early May and production is expected to return to full rates by the end of June."

The accelerated repair schedule will include moving up the dates for planned seasonal maintenance to minimize the effect of the outage on production.

The March 14 fire and explosion triggered the evacuation and shutdown of the plant, and seriously injured one worker.

• One week afterSyncrudefire, injured worker remains in hospital
• Line failure, naphtha leak caused explosion atSyncrudeupgrader, company says

Syncrudehas said it would not provide details on the nature of the employee's injuries or recovery, citing privacy concerns.

An initial investigation of the incident found a failure on a pipeline near one of thehydrotreatingunits caused treated naphtha a highly flammable hydrocarbon mixture to leak, triggering the fire which burned for nearly two days before it was extinguished.

The Mildred Lakeupgraderis located 40 kilometres north of FortMcMurray.