The funds will be used for enhancements to the Stage 1 Demonstration Plant of the project and to finance further development work on the proposed Stage 2 - the full scale commercial development.

The company said oil production operations were set to resume at the demonstration plant after a seven week shutdown to clear a blockage, carry out maintenance and implement a number of reliability improvements.

Currently, the plant is in the final stages of equipment commissioning after the shutdown. The resumption of shale processing operations is targeted for the end of this week, according to SPP.

The maintenance work to clear the blockage in the ATP (Alberta Taciuk Processor) was successful. Although it was a time consuming process, no major equipment repairs were required as a result of the blockage.

A number of equipment reliability improvements were also advanced into the shutdown, aimed at increasing plant availability and production run length.

New "pushers" were installed in the cooling zone of the ATP to facilitate the flow of processed shale through the ATP. This should help to prevent overfilling of the ATP and minimise the potential for fine shale particulates to carry over into the hydrocarbon vapour scrubber as happened in late September.

The next production run has been planned to achieve higher sustained oil production rates of 2600 to 3000 barrels per day, while maintaining low odour emissions. Higher shale processing rates and improved oil yield will be targeted to achieve this result, said SPP.

It also said extensive analysis had been completed on hydrocarbon yield performance in the Stage 1 plant with encouraging results.