Projects / Jackfish

Jackfish

Canadian Natural Resources Limited
No modeled maintenance in the forward windowSAGDCNQ

OperatorCanadian Natural Resources Limited
TypeSAGD
TickerCNQ
ST53 schemeJackfish
DescriptionJackfish is a steam-assisted gravity drainage (SAGD) in-situ oil sands project in the Athabasca region producing bitumen. Canadian Natural acquired it from Devon Energy in 2019.
Source: World Oil, Canadian Natural closer to 'King of oil sands' with Devon purchase, 2019-05-30
StatusOperating.
Nameplate capacityAnnounced nameplate capacity of 120,000 bbl/d of bitumen. The facility runs ABOVE announced nameplate: all-time demonstrated maximum 131,300 bbl/d in July 2026 (AER ST53, scheme "Jackfish", Canadian Natural Resources Limited); the facility has at times operated above nameplate (e.g., a record 129,000 bbl/d at the end of 2020). Modeled nameplate is 131,000 bbl/d (demonstrated output), raised 2026-09-23 per the standing rule: where actuals beat announced nameplate, history wins and the page says so explicitly.
Source: Canadian Natural Resources Limited, Q1 2026 results front-end, 2026-05-07
Source: Oil Sands Magazine, CNRL makes plans to add 'low risk volumes' to its thermal portfolio, 2021-11-14
Source: Source: AER ST53 monthly, verified 2026-09-23

Note: the ST53 scheme "Jackfish 1" under Devon NEC Corporation (max 32,100 bbl/d, 2010-12) is a separate legacy scheme and is NOT part of the Jackfish project total. The Devon Canada Corporation "Jackfish" row (max 128,200 bbl/d, 2018-12) is the pre-acquisition record of the same physical asset now operated by CNRL.
Start-up / phasesnot tracked in the public data used here
Ownership / JV splitCanadian Natural Resources Limited owns 100% and operates Jackfish.
Source: Canadian Natural Resources Limited, Q1 2026 results front-end, 2026-05-07
Product and dispositionBitumen: flexible disposition, dilbit to market or upgrader feed (economically optimized)
Source: Dashboard grade-layer panel (leaf mapping lineage); disposition defaults from annotations/maintenance_disposition_history.md
Process / technologySAGD.
Source: Canadian Natural Resources Limited, corporate presentation, September 2022, https://www.presentationnation.com/api/assets/companies/canadian-natural-resources/presentations/p-corp-pres-september/original.pdf
Froth treatmentnot applicable (in-situ / upgrading)
Interconnectsnot tracked in the public data used here
Growth / expansionsAt Pike (adjacent lease, now 100% CNRL after the Q1 2022 acquisition of the remaining 50% working interest), two SAGD pads were being drilled in H1 2025 and will be tied into the existing Jackfish facilities; both were targeted to come on production in 2026 to keep the Jackfish plants at full capacity.
Source: Canadian Natural Resources Limited, Q1 2025 interim report, 2025-05-08

Canadian Natural reports total thermal in-situ facility processing capacity of approximately 340,000 bbl/d across its portfolio (not allocable to individual projects).
Source: Canadian Natural Resources Limited, Q1 2025 interim report, 2025-05-08
Company-disclosed maintenanceA turnaround at Jackfish was completed in April 2026, with a Q2 average impact of about 9,300 bbl/d.
Source: Canadian Natural Resources Limited, Q1 2026 results front-end, 2026-05-07

not disclosed in reviewed sources
Operating costsCanadian Natural discloses thermal in-situ operating costs on a portfolio basis, not by project: C$12.59/bbl in Q1 2026.
Source: Canadian Natural Resources Limited, Q1 2026 results front-end, 2026-05-07

Full-year 2025 thermal in-situ operating costs were C$11.09/bbl.
Source: Canadian Natural Resources Limited, Q4 2025 results front-end, 2025-03-05

Blank "not tracked" cells are facts not present in the public data used here. They are labeled, never estimated. Filing-sourced facts carry their document name and date; where sources disclose multiple bases for one figure, all are shown.

Production

128.8 kb/d
latest actual, Jul 2026 (Jackfish (CNRL))
137.3 kb/d
12-month forecast average, Oct 2026 to Sep 2027
Jackfish (CNRL) monthly production Jackfish (CNRL) monthly production kb/d 0.0 50.0 100.0 150.0 200.0 Aug 25: 159.5 kb/d Sep 25: 157.8 kb/d Oct 25: 156.0 kb/d Nov 25: 145.6 kb/d Dec 25: 139.1 kb/d Jan 26: 140.8 kb/d Feb 26: 137.2 kb/d Mar 26: 129.7 kb/d Apr 26: 93.2 kb/d May 26: 128.7 kb/d Jun 26: 131.9 kb/d Jul 26: 128.8 kb/d Aug 26: 145.9 kb/d Sep 26: 143.8 kb/d Oct 26: 139.7 kb/d Nov 26: 135.3 kb/d Dec 26: 134.5 kb/d Jan 27: 135.5 kb/d Feb 27: 135.9 kb/d Mar 27: 138.9 kb/d Apr 27: 126.3 kb/d May 27: 136.2 kb/d Jun 27: 136.0 kb/d Jul 27: 140.1 kb/d Aug 27: 145.9 kb/d Sep 27: 143.8 kb/d 143.8 Aug 25 Oct 25 Dec 25 Feb 26 Apr 26 Jun 26 Aug 26 Oct 26 Dec 26 Feb 27 Apr 27 Jun 27 Aug 27 Sep 27
Vintage: AER ST53 actuals through 2026-07 (ST39 through 2026-05), pulled 2026-09-22; Aug-Sep 2026 nowcast estimated, built 2026-09-23; forecast built 2026-09-22. Solid orange shading marks months with modeled maintenance on this series. Series: Jackfish (CNRL).
Actuals (AER)Nowcast (model est.)Forecast (model)Modeled maintenance month
Latest actuals (kb/d)
SeriesFeb 2026Mar 2026Apr 2026May 2026Jun 2026Jul 2026
Jackfish (CNRL)137.2129.793.2128.7131.9128.8
First forecast months (kb/d)
SeriesOct 2026Nov 2026Dec 2026Jan 2027Feb 2027Mar 2027
Jackfish (CNRL)139.7135.3134.5135.5135.9138.9

Full 26-month table with drill-down lives in the trading dashboard. Blank cells are months AER has not published yet, not zeros.

How to read Jackfish (CNRL): Seasonal baseline off a 108.4 kb/d trailing-12m baseline. No 2027 turnaround statements; single-month dips are seasonal factors repeating the last 3 years.

Maintenance

No maintenance events in the current model math for this project.

No forward-calendar entries for this project in annotations/maintenance_forward.yaml.

Outlook

Named assumptions: Seasonal baseline off a 108.4 kb/d trailing-12m baseline. No 2027 turnaround statements; single-month dips are seasonal factors repeating the last 3 years.

Confirmation status: model forecast; maintenance impacts enter the math only from public-confirmed guidance.

Market relevance

In-situ bitumen has flexible disposition (dilbit to market or upgrader feed). In the model, Jackfish output is unchanged by upgrader outages and any upgrader-bound share is assumed diverted to dilbit, so its 137.3 kb/d 12-month forecast average is a steady contributor to marketable dilbit across the tradable window.

Basis: model-derived from the dashboard series above; no external view is added.

Related weekly notes

Sources

Jackfish (CNRL)
Source: AER ST53, commercial scheme mapping (repo annotations/projects.yaml)
Vintage: AER ST53 actuals through 2026-07, pulled 2026-09-22; model nowcast (_seasonal_baseline + confirmed maintenance), built 2026-09-23
Method: actuals: ST53 scheme observed, grossed up by 1.27 to ST3 in-situ level (mapped projects cover 79.0%). forecast: _seasonal_baseline (trailing-12m mean x seasonal factor from last 3 complete years).

Full citation block

Sources
PublisherDatasetURLPublishedVintage / coverageRetrieved
Alberta Energy RegulatorST3: Alberta Energy Resource Industries Monthly Statisticshttps://www.aer.ca/data-and-performance/data-and-publications/statistical-reports/st3MonthlyActuals through 2026-07 (latest file vintage 2026-08-27)2026-09-22
Alberta Energy RegulatorST53: In-situ project data (BITUMEN sheet)https://www.aer.ca/data-and-performance/data-and-publications/statistical-reports/st53MonthlyActuals through 2026-072026-09-22
Alberta Energy RegulatorST39: Mine and upgrader facility dataURL not recorded in repoMonthlyActuals through 2026-052026-09-22
Canada Energy RegulatorPipeline throughput, capacity and apportionment (open data)https://www.cer-rec.gc.ca/open/energy/throughput-capacity/Monthly, ~3-month lagJan 2018 to Jun 20262026-09-22
Company disclosuresQuarterlies, budget releases, investor presentations, earnings callsURLs per record in annotations/maintenance_forward.yamlAs publishedForward maintenance calendar window 2026-10-01 to 2027-09-30, compiled 2026-09-222026-09-22
Heavy Reading modelWCSB S&D dashboard build (21 granular leaves, grade layer, maintenance math)No public URL (repo build)Per buildForecast built 2026-09-22; Aug-Sep 2026 nowcast built 2026-09-232026-09-23

Every number on this page traces to a row above. Anything missing its own source line is flagged in place; nothing ships with an unsourced number.

Heavy Reading · the WCSB supply letter.
Public information only: AER ST3/ST39/ST53 and company disclosures via the WCSB S&D model. Nothing here is licensed data, so this page renders the same with or without ?public=1.