A Calgary-based company plans to invest $2B in a new upgrading facility east of Edmonton and the province says the project will create more than 2000 construction jobs in Alberta.
Alberta Premier Rachel Notley and officials with Calgary-based Value Creation Inc. made the announcement in Calgary on Tuesday morning.
The facility will upgrade diluted oilsands bitumen to a type of crude blend that flows easier through pipelines and uses less capacity.
The process is expected to increase pipeline capacity by as much as 30 per cent and reduce GHG emissions by 16 per cent per barrel, compared to current processes that extract bitumen.
It is hoped that it will also provide access to more refineries that are currently unable to accept bitumen from Alberta’s oilsands.
Officials say the project will create over 2,000 construction jobs and that 200 people will be employed full-time at the facility once it is up and running.
The project is part of the Made-in-Alberta strategy and is being supported with a $440M loan guarantee from the Government of Alberta, which is subject to reaching a final agreement.
“In the days and weeks ahead you will hear more about our Made-In-Alberta plan. We are working with several companies towards agreement that could lead to $20B in new capital investments. Those projects will also be at the cutting edge of energy technology,” said Premier Notley.
Notley says her government is taking the ‘bull by the horn’ to get full value for Alberta oil and that the project is a fulfillment of a request that the province put out last year for private investment in the oilsands.
“We’ve said all along that technology must be part of the solution to help us make energy that’s better for the climate and that’s what this does," said Notely.
The province says the site is ‘shovel ready’ and the plant is expected to be operational by 2022.
