Honeywell TPS in Fieldbus Testing at Syncrude

Business Wire, Sept 3, 1998

PHOENIX--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 3, 1998--Syncrude and Honeywell today announced that the current testing of Foundation(TM) Fieldbus devices at Syncrude Canada's Research Facility in Edmonton, Alberta has been expanded to include Honeywell's TotalPlant Solution System, widely known in industry as the TPS system.

Syncrude and Honeywell have been engaged in the testing of Honeywell ST3000 Series Foundation Fieldbus transmitters and SCAN3000 Host System throughout the past year, and have included Foundation Fieldbus field devices from other instrument manufacturers to form an interoperability test bed.

To facilitate this new phase of testing, TPS components including a High Performance Process Manager with Foundation Fieldbus Interface software and hardware as well as a Global User Station, have been installed at the Syncrude Research site. Syncrude and Honeywell engineers will begin testing by transferring an existing Fieldbus H1 segment from the SCAN3000 Host system over to TPS.

Syncrude and Honeywell have had an Alliance partnership in place since 1992, and this test is one of several joint initiatives intended to benefit both partners. Syncrude Canada Ltd. is among the world's largest users of Honeywell Distributed Control.

"This represents a very significant step in the progression of Foundation Fieldbus," said John Pittman, President of the Austin, Texas based Fieldbus Foundation. "It is encouraging to see this kind of advancement being made within the Distributed Control System environment."

Honeywell is a global controls company focused on creating value through technology that enhances comfort, improves productivity, saves energy, protects the environment and increases safety. The company services customers worldwide in the homes and buildings, industrial, and aviation and space markets. Honeywell employs 56,000 people in 95 countries, and had 1996 sales of $6.7 billion.

Syncrude Canada Limited is the largest operator in the Alberta Oil sands. Syncrude operates two oil sands mines, a utilities plant, and a bitumen extraction and upgrading facility that process bitumen to produce value-added high quality, light, sweet crude oil, called Syncrude Sweet Blend. In 1996, almost 74 million barrels of Syncrude Sweet Blend were produced, about 12 percent of Canada's annual petroleum requirements. This makes Syncrude North America's largest single source of crude oil. Syncrude employs about 3,500 people at its Fort McMurray plant and Edmonton Research Centre. It 1996 revenues totaled $2.1 billion.

For additional information, write to: Honeywell Inquiries, 2800 Wells Branch Parkway, Austin, TX 78728. Inquiries also may be made to Honeywell by phone, 1-800-288-7491, or by fax, 512-244-9222 or via Honeywell IAC's Worldwide Web Site at: http://www.iac.honeywell.com

For additional information about the Syncrude Research Center, contact John Clark, Manager, Research, by telephone 403-970-6800, by fax 403-970-6805 or by e-mail at clark.john.e@syncrude.com. Further information about Syncrude can be found on Syncrude's web site at http://www.syncrude.com

Foundation is a trademark of the Fieldbus Foundation.

    CONTACT: Honeywell, Phoenix
              Anne McCarthy, 602/313-5586
              or 800/288-7491
              or
              Syncrude Canada Ltd.
              Peter Marshall, 403/790-6348
              or 800/667-9494