Partial upgrading seen as a way forward for Alberta oil

Above: Premier Notley announces the next step for energy diversification with (L-R) Naushad Jamani, senior vice-president, Nova Chemicals, Gil McGowan, co-chair, EDAC, Minister McCuaig-Boyd, Minister Bilous, Jeanette Patell, co-chair, EDAC and Mark Plamondon, executive director, Alberta’s Industrial Heartland.

by Morinville News staff

The province announced Monday that Alberta would leverage billions in new private-sector investment to create thousands of jobs through a diversified energy industry.

Support for full-scale commercialization of partial-upgrading technologies will be among those next steps for the government.

Partial upgrading reduces bitumen’s thickness, allowing it to flow through pipelines easier without having to be blended with diluent.

The government believes partial upgrading would enhance oil sands competitiveness by reducing industry costs, increasing pipeline capacity and enabling more refineries to process Alberta bitumen product.

“We are blessed with a greater variety of natural resources than anywhere in the world, but right now we’re not getting full value for them,” Premier Notley said in a news release Monday morning. “As we fight for new pipelines and a better price for our oil, we must also create the right conditions for investment and jobs in oil and gas processing and manufacturing. This is the same vision Premier Lougheed had for Alberta, and I’m proud to move that vision closer to reality.”

The government will support up to $1 billion for partial upgrading over eight years beginning in 2019-20. This would include a number of fiscal tools, including loan guarantees and grants. It is expected the investment would leverage construction of two to five partial upgrading facilities worth up to $5 billion in private investment, and creating 4,000 construction jobs and 200 full-time jobs during operation.

The University of Calgary has estimated partial upgrading could be worth up to $22 billion in GDP growth for Alberta over 20 years.

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6 Comments

  1. for someone who has handicapped Albert a for her entire term to all of a sudden do a 180° and try to help Albertans on her election year is very obvious where her mind is at. I hope all Albertans don’t forget the last three years .

    • nope I won’t …150 schools built,minimum wage will be 15.00 and hour, new plants being built in the Edmonton Area, new hospitals being built, hospital beds opening up…fighting to get the pipeline tho….working on our highways, Selling not only Alberta’s oil and gas but our sun and wind…putting monies into to the workers of the coal plants, putting monies in to our seniors, cutting bonus and wages of the CEO’s like WCB’s….been the best….the carbon tax sucks, but the farmers are except from paying and they get a check…bill 6 was a long time coming to protect the workers.

      • So PAM WHAT DID YOU SAY THE ALBERTA DEBT WAS TODAY??…. The real one not the NDPeed OFF covered up one…. And what will the real debt be after when we have to pay for all these NDPeeD OFF promises… Dose the words Provincial sales tax mean any thing to you???? Your living in LA lA LAND Good luck on fighting the BC NDPeeR’s on the pipeline…Wait til your electric and home heating bills start to rise… These NDPeeR’s and Liberal know one word TAX It’ going to take the UPC 20 years to cleam up the mess that these NDPeeD OFFS leave us!!

  2. How has ‘she’ handicapped Alberta? Stats? Proof of this? Investment is returning, we have the best economy in the county… they have literally done everything they campaigned on. I would LOVE to see you haters provide anything other than memes for your arguments.

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