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Imperial Oil Ltd. is going ahead with its $2.6 billion Aspen oilsands project even as Canadian heavy crude is selling at the lowest prices in at least a decade.

The producer, which is majority-owned by Exxon Mobil Corp., said it made a final investment decision to build the so-called solvent-assisted, steam-assisted gravity drainage site in northern Alberta, and that it will produce 75,000 barrels a day of bitumen once it starts operation. Construction will start in the current quarter and is expected to be completed in 2022.

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Aspen would be one of the biggest new oilsands projects to proceed since global crude prices collapsed in 2014 from more than US$100 a barrel.

The decision comes as pipeline bottlenecks and delays in building new export lines widen the gap between Canadian heavy-crude prices and global benchmarks.

“We do not take investment decisions lightly, particularly in these challenging times,” Rich Kruger, Imperial chairman, said in the release. “We have made the decision to proceed now because we believe this advanced technology will further the evolution of Imperial’s oilsands business.”