Questerre Energy Corporation, the Calgary-headquartered energy technology firm, has successfully completed emergency maintenance work at its PX Energy oil shale processing facility in southern Brazil, bringing the critical plant back online just days ahead of target.
The unscheduled turnaround wrapped up in late August 2026, with the facility resuming operations on August 18. The team executed the repair flawlessly—finishing on budget, on schedule, and most importantly, with zero recordable safety incidents.
The work focused on fixing a critical pipe failure in the furnace that supplies heat to the main processing unit, known as the retort. Questerre crews also completed additional maintenance to restore the retort to peak operating efficiency. Within six days of restart, the retort was already running above 90 per cent efficiency.
What Makes This Remarkable
What could have been a serious operational setback turned into a textbook example of crisis management. The company managed to keep its atmospheric distillation unit running continuously throughout the turnaround—a feat that kept production flowing even during the emergency repairs. This operational resilience meant Questerre could still meet its minimum sales commitments under long-term contracts for August despite the unexpected shutdown.
Michael Binnion, Questerre's President and Chief Executive Officer, highlighted the achievement: "We are pleased the team completed this unscheduled turnaround according to plan. We are looking forward to applying the learnings to mitigate the root cause of this shutdown and to optimize our scheduled turnaround next spring."
What's Next
The successful completion positions Questerre well heading into its planned maintenance cycle in spring. The company says it will use the lessons learned from this emergency repair to prevent similar issues and streamline future maintenance windows.
Questerre Energy focuses on responsible oil and gas development, with a significant natural gas discovery in Quebec's Utica shale formation—one of Eastern Canada's most important undeveloped natural gas resources. The company emphasizes balancing economics, environment, and societal needs as it advances energy technology and innovation.
This article is based on reporting from the Financial Post. View the original release on GlobeNewswire.