The Canadian unit of one of China’s largest oil and gas companies is on track to start operations at a new 35,000-barrel-per-day oil-sands plant later this year despite crude prices being below break-even levels for the project, a senior executive said. PetroChina Co.’s Brion Energy unit plans to begin steaming operations at its MacKay River oil-sands site in northern Alberta later this year and produce first oil in early in 2017, Bob Shepherd, Brion’s executive vice president, said in an interview. “We fully expect to start it up this fall,” pending final approval from parent company PetroChina, Mr. Shepherd said. The startup will mark the first production from PetroChina’s nearly 5 billion-Canadian-dollar ($3.9 billion) investment in two oil-sands projects in northern Alberta. The MacKay River project received approval in 2011 from Alberta provincial regulators […]