THE WALL STREET JOURNAL: Shell Canada Gives Update On Scotford Upgrader Maintenance: “The upgrader, along with the Muskeg River mine in Alberta, make up the Athabasca Oil Sands Project, a joint venture of Shell Canada (60%), Chevron Canada Ltd. (20% ) and Western Oil Sands L.P. (20%).” (ShellNews.net) Posted 14 Dec 04

DOW JONES NEWSWIRES

CALGARY -- Shell Canada Ltd. (SHC.T) said in a news release Monday that repairs continue at its Scotford Upgrader northeast of Edmonton.

As reported, a catalyst pump in the Residue Hydrocracker Train 1 (RHC-1) failed on Oct. 19, and related repairs required a complete shutdown of the train. The company determined that an operational upset led to the pump failure. Repairs were completed in late November, and safeguards put in place to prevent similar upsets.

Shell Canada said RHC-1 was being ramped back up towards full production when a tubing leak was detected in one of the aerial coolers on Dec. 8. This problem was caused by an operational error during start-up of RHC-1, which led to freezing inside the tubing bundle. For safety reasons, it will be necessary to inspect and repair tubing bundles in the other coolers on RHC-1 before restarting this train. As a result, RHC-1 is now expected to remain shut down until about the end of December, the company said.

It said the second train at the upgrader continues in full service and the upgrader is maintaining about 65% of full production volume.

The upgrader, along with the Muskeg River mine in Alberta, make up the Athabasca Oil Sands Project, a joint venture of Shell Canada (60%), Chevron Canada Ltd. (20% ) and Western Oil Sands L.P. (20%).

Shell Canada is an integrated oil and gas company.

Company Web Site: http://www.shell.ca

-Carolyn King, Dow Jones Newswires; 416-306-2100