Projects / Kirby

Kirby

Canadian Natural Resources Limited
No modeled maintenance in the forward windowSAGDCNQ

OperatorCanadian Natural Resources Limited
TypeSAGD
TickerCNQ
ST53 schemeKirby
DescriptionKirby is a steam-assisted gravity drainage (SAGD) in-situ oil sands project comprising the Kirby South and Kirby North phases. Canadian Natural uses solvent co-injection at Kirby South to reduce steam loads.
Source: Oil Sands Magazine, CNRL makes plans to add 'low risk volumes' to its thermal portfolio, 2021-11-14
StatusOperating. Kirby North Phase 1 received all required regulatory permits (reported as of late 2014).
Source: Oil Sands Magazine, Canadian Natural Resources beats analysts' expectations for the third quarter, 2014-11-06
Nameplate capacityKirby South nameplate capacity of 40,000 bbl/d; Kirby North nameplate capacity of 40,000 bbl/d; combined Kirby capacity of 80,000 bbl/d. Note: secondary-sourced.
Source: Oil Sands Magazine, CNRL makes plans to add 'low risk volumes' to its thermal portfolio, 2021-11-14
Start-up / phasesnot tracked in the public data used here
Ownership / JV splitCanadian Natural Resources Limited owns 100% and operates Kirby.
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. Solvent co-injection at Kirby South has reduced steam loads by about 45%.
Source: Oil Sands Magazine, CNRL makes plans to add 'low risk volumes' to its thermal portfolio, 2021-11-14
Froth treatmentnot applicable (in-situ / upgrading)
Interconnectsnot tracked in the public data used here
Growth / expansionsCanadian Natural has a Kirby SAGD pad planned for production in 2027.
Source: Canadian Natural Resources Limited, Q4 2025 results front-end, document date not verified in this pass

Previously, a Kirby SAGD pad was targeted to come on production in Q4 2025, with a second pad targeted for Q4 2026; in 2025 the company reallocated a portion of pad-add capital from Kirby to Primrose to maximize returns.
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 maintenancenot 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; full-year 2025 was C$11.09/bbl.
Source: Canadian Natural Resources Limited, Q1 2026 results front-end, 2026-05-07
Source: Canadian Natural Resources Limited, Q4 2025 results front-end, document date not verified in this pass

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

70.1 kb/d
latest actual, Jul 2026 (Kirby (CNRL))
72.3 kb/d
12-month forecast average, Oct 2026 to Sep 2027
Kirby (CNRL) monthly production Kirby (CNRL) monthly production kb/d 0.0 25.0 50.0 75.0 100.0 Aug 25: 73.7 kb/d Sep 25: 68.8 kb/d Oct 25: 70.3 kb/d Nov 25: 74.8 kb/d Dec 25: 71.9 kb/d Jan 26: 70.8 kb/d Feb 26: 69.9 kb/d Mar 26: 73.7 kb/d Apr 26: 74.3 kb/d May 26: 76.3 kb/d Jun 26: 73.4 kb/d Jul 26: 70.1 kb/d Aug 26: 73.5 kb/d Sep 26: 70.7 kb/d Oct 26: 73.1 kb/d Nov 26: 74.1 kb/d Dec 26: 73.6 kb/d Jan 27: 70.0 kb/d Feb 27: 70.4 kb/d Mar 27: 71.8 kb/d Apr 27: 69.7 kb/d May 27: 70.9 kb/d Jun 27: 76.4 kb/d Jul 27: 73.8 kb/d Aug 27: 73.5 kb/d Sep 27: 70.7 kb/d 70.7 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: Kirby (CNRL).
Actuals (AER)Nowcast (model est.)Forecast (model)Modeled maintenance month
Latest actuals (kb/d)
SeriesFeb 2026Mar 2026Apr 2026May 2026Jun 2026Jul 2026
Kirby (CNRL)69.973.774.376.373.470.1
First forecast months (kb/d)
SeriesOct 2026Nov 2026Dec 2026Jan 2027Feb 2027Mar 2027
Kirby (CNRL)73.174.173.670.070.471.8

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 Kirby (CNRL): Seasonal baseline off a 57.1 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 57.1 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, Kirby output is unchanged by upgrader outages and any upgrader-bound share is assumed diverted to dilbit, so its 72.3 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

Kirby (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.