Canadian player Suncor Energy is setting aside C$5.5 billion (US$5.23 billion) for capital spending next year, adding it plans to resume construction work at the Firebag Stage 3 oil sands project.

Suncor said it will set aside C$1.5 billion for growth project funding at its oil sands operations and C$4 billion in sustaining existing operations.

The company also unveiled plans to speed up work at Firebag Stage 3, which was about half complete before being put in ice earlier this year.

Suncor expects production to start in the second quarter of 2011, with volumes then beginning to ramp up toward design capacity of about 68,000 barrels per day of bitumen.

It also plans Firebag Stage 4 with similar capacity and expects bitumen production in the fourth quarter of 2012.

The company said last week it plans to sell as much as C$4 billion in assets, including a third of its natural gas operations, smaller interests in some North Sea fields and its Trinidad and Tobago holdings.