OPTI Canada is a Calgary, Alberta based oil sands development company. Established in 1999, its sole project is the Long Lake oil sands project, of which it owns 35%. The remaining 65% is owned by project operator Nexen Inc.
History
OPTI was founded as Ormat Process Technologies Inc. in 1999 by Israeli energy company Ormat Industries, which had developed the OrCrude process in the 1990s.[1] Ormat was approached by Calgary-based Nexen, who sent a delegation to Israel to supervise a test of the process.[1] However, using OrCrude in the oil sands appeared uneconomical to Nexen, who withdrew.[1] Ormat instead contacted Calgary's Suncor Energy, with whom it founded OPTI as a 50-50 venture, with the Nexen delegation's head, Jim Arnold, as its first employee.[1]