Projects / Narrows Lake

Narrows Lake

Cenovus Energy Inc.
No modeled maintenance in the forward windowSAGDCVE

OperatorCenovus Energy Inc.
TypeSAGD
TickerCVE
ST53 schemeNarrows Lake
DescriptionNarrows Lake is a steam-assisted gravity drainage (SAGD) project operated by Cenovus Energy Inc., developed as a tie-back into the existing Christina Lake central processing facility via a 17-km pipeline connection. It was originally planned as a stand-alone 130,000 bbl/d SAGD facility but was never sanctioned in that form. First oil was achieved in July 2025. AER ST53 reports Narrows Lake as its own scheme (approval 11798M in 2025, 11798O from 2026), with actuals ramping from 1.2 kb/d in Jul 2025 to 80.2 kb/d in Jul 2026, above the original 20,000 to 30,000 bbl/d company guidance.
Source: Cenovus Energy, Cenovus Energy third quarter 2024 results, 2024-10-31
Source: Alberta Major Projects, Narrows Lake Tie-Back to Christina Lake
Source: AER ST53, verified 2026-09-23
StatusOperating. AER approval 11798M (2025 rows) and 11798O (2026 rows); the approval rows do not overlap in time.
Source: AER ST53, verified 2026-09-23
Nameplate capacityCompany guidance at sanction: 20,000 to 30,000 bbl/d via the 17-km tie-back, with first production targeted for mid-2025. Demonstrated output runs above it: AER ST53 actuals reached 80.2 kb/d in Jul 2026.
Source: Cenovus Energy, Cenovus Energy third quarter 2024 results, 2024-10-31
Source: AER ST53, verified 2026-09-23
Start-up / phasesnot tracked in the public data used here
Ownership / JV splitCenovus Energy Inc. owns 100% and operates Narrows Lake.
Source: AER ST53, scheme Narrows Lake, operator Cenovus Energy Inc., verified 2026-09-23
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; bitumen is processed at the Christina Lake central processing facility.
Source: Cenovus Energy, Q3 2024 results news release, 2024-10-31
Froth treatmentnot applicable (in-situ / upgrading)
Interconnectsnot tracked in the public data used here
Growth / expansionsNo further sanctioned expansion disclosed beyond the tie-back ramp now in production.
Company-disclosed maintenancenot disclosed in reviewed sources
Operating costsnot disclosed in reviewed sources
NoteTie-back into Christina Lake; separate ST53 scheme since Jul 2025. AER approval 11798M (2025) / 11798O (2026).

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

101.6 kb/d
latest actual, Jul 2026 (Narrows Lake (Cenovus))
57.1 kb/d
12-month forecast average, Oct 2026 to Sep 2027
Narrows Lake (Cenovus) monthly production Narrows Lake (Cenovus) monthly production kb/d 0.0 50.0 100.0 150.0 200.0 Aug 25: 10.0 kb/d Sep 25: 19.5 kb/d Oct 25: 27.8 kb/d Nov 25: 40.1 kb/d Dec 25: 45.8 kb/d Jan 26: 51.2 kb/d Feb 26: 54.1 kb/d Mar 26: 69.8 kb/d Apr 26: 80.7 kb/d May 26: 88.3 kb/d Jun 26: 96.2 kb/d Jul 26: 101.6 kb/d Aug 26: 57.1 kb/d Sep 26: 57.1 kb/d Oct 26: 57.1 kb/d Nov 26: 57.1 kb/d Dec 26: 57.1 kb/d Jan 27: 57.1 kb/d Feb 27: 57.1 kb/d Mar 27: 57.1 kb/d Apr 27: 57.1 kb/d May 27: 57.1 kb/d Jun 27: 57.1 kb/d Jul 27: 57.1 kb/d Aug 27: 57.1 kb/d Sep 27: 57.1 kb/d 57.1 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: Narrows Lake (Cenovus).
Actuals (AER)Nowcast (model est.)Forecast (model)Modeled maintenance month
Latest actuals (kb/d)
SeriesFeb 2026Mar 2026Apr 2026May 2026Jun 2026Jul 2026
Narrows Lake (Cenovus)54.169.880.788.396.2101.6
First forecast months (kb/d)
SeriesOct 2026Nov 2026Dec 2026Jan 2027Feb 2027Mar 2027
Narrows Lake (Cenovus)57.157.157.157.157.157.1

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 Narrows Lake (Cenovus): Seasonal baseline off a 45.1 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 45.1 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, Narrows Lake output is unchanged by upgrader outages and any upgrader-bound share is assumed diverted to dilbit, so its 57.1 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

No weekly edition to date mentions this asset by name.

Sources

Narrows Lake (Cenovus)
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.