Kearl Oil Sands Project

The Kearl Oil Sands Project is an oil sands mine in the Athabasca Oil Sands region at the Kearl Lake area, about 70 kilometres (43 mi) north of Fort McMurray in Alberta, Canada that is operated by the 143-year old Calgary, Alberta-headquartered Imperial Oil Limited—one of the largest integrated oil companies in Canada. Kearl is owned by Imperial Oil and is controlled by Imperial's parent company, ExxonMobil—an American multinational that is one of the largest in the world.

Since its first announcement in 2003, the megaproject jointly owned by Imperial Oil and ExxonMobil, but was controlled by Exxon, who owns 69% of Imperial Oil's shares. In 1997, Exxon submitted Kearl's initial public disclosure.

In 2009, ExxonMobil—the American multinational corporation, headquartered in Texas—owned 30% of the Kearl Oil Sands Project in 2009, while Imperial Oil Limited owned 70% of the project. ExxonMobil Corporation Imperial Oil Limited, with its headquarters in Calgary, Alberta is one of the largest integrated oil companies in Canada. ExxonMobil is one of the largest companies in the world in terms of oil production.

In 2003, similar projects—which like the one proposed at Kearl included an upgrader capable of turning bitumen into synthetic crude oil—were estimated to cost over CA$5 billion.

By 2007, the estimated cost of the project was CA$7 billion.

The first stage of development as described in 2009, involved capital spending of about CA$8 billion, with the final estimate being highly dependent on the final upgrading option selected.

By 2010, the cost of the Kearl Oil Sands Project was more than CA$8 billion.

By February 2013, Imperial said that the Kearl's first phase would cost CA$12.9 billion, 2 billion more than its previous estimate of 10.9 billion dollars, and 61% more than the original estimate of 8 billion.