Hi exbigblue;

I appreciate your response. It's just as I suspected. I agree that POD 1 will never reach the design capacity of 10,000 bbl/d of bitumen in fact management prepared us for this eventuality by stating in 2009 several times that 9,000 bbl/d of bitumen will be the operating capacity of POD 1. On the other hand, once the ESP's are all installed at POD 1 (which will result in bitumen production falling back in April when the ESP's are being installed, and then ramping up again afterwards; with this occurring again in September) and production stabilizing after September to a normal rate with the SOR's being reducted, I expect that the extra steam will be applied to wellpairs 18 & 19 at POD 1. After that in 2011 I fully expect to see Connacher begin experimenting by spraying solvent in the steam chamber at POD 1, much as Encana has pioneered to date spraying asphaltene in their SAGD operations, in order to lower the SOR's even further. Encana has been able to lower their SOR's to 1.8 etc. by spraying solvent in the steam chamber which also not only reduces the SOR but also increases the recovery factor which has enabled Encana to recover a greater volume of oil from their SAGD operations as I seem to recall that SAGD only permits a company to recover 25-30% of the total underground oil in place over time. The solvent spraying process so far has enabled a higher recovery rate of the underground reserves. Time will tell.

A heartening factor is that the 2009 Annual Report states that Algar has better quality bitumen reserves in place which wil result in an "easier" recovery process then at POD1 with expected greater volumes of daily production than POD 1 which will hopefully mean in the end that combined production from POD 1 and Algar in their first phase will equal 20,000 bbl/d total by 2012.

Best Wishes; Scott