Projects / Peace River

Peace River

Canadian Natural Upgrading Limited
No modeled maintenance in the forward windowCSSCNQ

OperatorCanadian Natural Upgrading Limited
TypeCSS
TickerCNQ
ST53 schemePeace River
DescriptionPeace River is a cyclic steam stimulation (CSS) in-situ project in the Peace River oil sands region, about 300 km west of the main Athabasca deposit. Canadian Natural acquired it (with the Cliffdale heavy oil field and the Carmon Creek thermal project) from Shell as part of the Athabasca Oil Sands Project transaction announced March 9, 2017.
Source: Canadian Natural Resources Limited, Announces the Acquisition of Working Interest in the Athabasca Oil Sands Project and Other Oil Sands Assets, via BOE Report, 2017-03-09
StatusOperating. The Peace River Complex is licensed to produce 12,500 barrels of bitumen per day (annual average). The Carmon Creek expansion received AER approval in April 2013 but was never built.
Source: Shell, Construction moving forward at oilsands facility, 2013-11-13
Nameplate capacityPlant capacity of 12,500 bbl/d of bitumen. Note: secondary-sourced.
Source: Oil Sands Magazine, Peace River project profile, 2026-09-23
Source: commercial storage, Peace River/Carmon Creek asset report, 2025-09-09
Start-up / phasesnot tracked in the public data used here
Ownership / JV splitCanadian Natural Resources Limited owns 100% and operates Peace River.
Source: commercial storage, Peace River/Carmon Creek asset report, 2025-09-09
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 / technologyCSS with horizontal wells, producing from the Bluesky formation. The adjacent Cliffdale field produces by primary production techniques.
Source: commercial storage, Peace River/Carmon Creek asset report, 2025-09-09
Source: Canadian Natural Resources Limited, acquisition announcement, via GlobeNewswire, 2017-03-09
Froth treatmentnot applicable (in-situ / upgrading)
Interconnectsnot tracked in the public data used here
Growth / expansionsThe Carmon Creek expansion (Shell's project, targeting 80,000 bbl/d with two central processing facilities) received AER approval in April 2013 but was never sanctioned or built; it remains an undeveloped option associated with the Peace River complex.
Source: Shell, Construction moving forward at oilsands facility, 2013-11-13

Canadian Natural said the Carmon Creek thermal project would be reviewed for future development at the time of the 2017 acquisition. No sanctioned expansion disclosed in reviewed sources.
Source: Canadian Natural Resources Limited, Announces the Acquisition of Working Interest in the Athabasca Oil Sands Project and Other Oil Sands Assets, via BOE Report, 2017-03-09
Company-disclosed maintenancenot disclosed in reviewed sources
Operating costsnot disclosed in reviewed sources

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

4.4 kb/d
latest actual, Jul 2026 (Peace River (CNRL))
3.7 kb/d
12-month forecast average, Oct 2026 to Sep 2027
Peace River (CNRL) monthly production Peace River (CNRL) monthly production kb/d 0.0 1.2 2.5 3.8 5.0 Aug 25: 1.9 kb/d Sep 25: 2.9 kb/d Oct 25: 4.0 kb/d Nov 25: 4.0 kb/d Dec 25: 4.2 kb/d Jan 26: 3.6 kb/d Feb 26: 3.6 kb/d Mar 26: 4.2 kb/d Apr 26: 4.2 kb/d May 26: 4.7 kb/d Jun 26: 2.8 kb/d Jul 26: 4.4 kb/d Aug 26: 3.6 kb/d Sep 26: 3.9 kb/d Oct 26: 4.1 kb/d Nov 26: 4.1 kb/d Dec 26: 4.1 kb/d Jan 27: 3.7 kb/d Feb 27: 3.7 kb/d Mar 27: 3.7 kb/d Apr 27: 3.7 kb/d May 27: 3.2 kb/d Jun 27: 3.4 kb/d Jul 27: 3.5 kb/d Aug 27: 3.5 kb/d Sep 27: 3.9 kb/d 3.9 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: Peace River (CNRL).
Actuals (AER)Nowcast (model est.)Forecast (model)Modeled maintenance month
Latest actuals (kb/d)
SeriesFeb 2026Mar 2026Apr 2026May 2026Jun 2026Jul 2026
Peace River (CNRL)3.64.24.24.72.84.4
First forecast months (kb/d)
SeriesOct 2026Nov 2026Dec 2026Jan 2027Feb 2027Mar 2027
Peace River (CNRL)4.14.14.13.73.73.7

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 Peace River (CNRL): Seasonal baseline off a 2.9 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 2.9 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, Peace River output is unchanged by upgrader outages and any upgrader-bound share is assumed diverted to dilbit, so its 3.7 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

Peace River (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.