Rotork supplies intelligent actuators to Suncor Fort Hills oil sands development

Valve maker Rotork has fitted and delivered its IQ3 intelligent electric actuators to fifteen gate valves at a Canadian oil sands mine project.

In a recent contract, Rotork’s facility at Calgary fitted the actuators to gate valves sized 42", 48" and 60" and shipped them to the Suncor Fort Hills project in the Athabasca region of Alberta.

The contract is one of many for Suncor Fort Hills which involve Rotork on a global scale.

In addition to electric actuators supplied locally from Calgary, over 1,000 CP and GP range pneumatic actuators have been supplied by Rotork offices in Italy and South Korea.

Operating gate, ball, and triple offset butterfly valves, the actuators control the flow in applications including extraction, froth treatment, hydro-transport and primary refining, handling bitumen, slurry, water, and steam.

Suncor is Canada’s leading integrated energy company for whom Rotork has been a supplier of flow control products and services for over 30 years.

This record of proven reliability, together with the local support available from Rotork Site Services, have made important contributions to the Suncor decision to specify Rotork actuators for the Fort Hills project.

The valve torque profiling and datalogging abilities inherent in Rotork products are also recognised as effective tools for asset management at Fort Hills, which has been designed to utilise Suncor’s latest technology and approach to tailings management and reclamation processes.

The project is scheduled to produce first oil as early as the fourth quarter of 2017 and achieve 90% of its planned production capacity of 180,000 barrels per day within 12 months.

The mine life is expected to be approximately 50 years at the current planned production rate.