West Coast Olefins Ltd. (WCOL) is proposing to build a natural gas liquids extraction plant in the Pineview Area near Prince George.
The project would process natural gas from Enbridge’s West Coast pipeline before being sent to a separation plant, which is being proposed at the edge of the old BCR site in the Danson Industrial Area.
This is completely separate from the 5.6 billion dollar petrochemical plant in the works for the northern capital.
However, some area residents are objecting to the project and since launched a petition. A meeting was held at the Pineview Community Hall.
CEO, Ken James admits he and the company are trying to ease those concerns.
“We’ve got some people and some groups that are trying to make it out like we are doing the plastics plant. This is not the plastics plant and is a stand-alone project.”
“The reality is that when taking those liquids out we are cleaning up the fuel. The heavy hydrocarbons have a higher carbon intensity when they are burned so we end up being net carbon negative. I guess my view is I would have assumed that communities in the north would like to retain those values and the economic value-add opportunities associated with that especially in light of the forest sector being hit hard and the wildfires are only going to make that worse. I would have thought economic diversification would have been welcomed.”
James noted BC actually has more natural gas reserves than Alberta.
“However, all the NGL’s that are recovered in BC are routed to Alberta for further upgrades and then they are railed through Prince George en route to the export terminals in Prince Rupert.”
WCOL is currently in the community consultation process before they can file a regulatory application to the BC Oil and Gas Commission, which is expected to occur at the end of next week.
James would like to have regulatory approval in the next nine to 12 months with the hope of starting construction in the new year.
“What we need to do is walk the talk and demonstrate to people that we will be hiring local and so that the local economic benefit is actually realized. And then to say there are no emissions and once people see that you build trust with the community and have a rationale dialogue whether they want the project or not – we’ll listen to it.”
If approved, the total cost of the extraction plant would be 1.3 billion dollars.