PRINCE GEORGE 鈥� A Calgary-based company intends to build a $5.6-billion petrochemical plant in a Prince George industrial park.
West Coast Olefins chief executive Ken James said the company has secured a 300-acre site at the BCR Industrial Site to pursue the project. A fully operating facility is expected to be up-and-running by the end of 2023 and employ 1,000 people in permanent, highly skilled jobs. The feedstock would be natural gas supplied via the Enbridge West Coast pipeline.
鈥淭his will be the biggest project the city has ever seen,鈥� said James, who lived in Prince George from 1974 to 1984. He highlighted the city鈥檚 access to the CN Rail line to Prince Rupert, availability of land and proximity to the pipeline as three reasons why Prince George was chosen.
Steps still to be taken include clearing the provincial environmental assessment process, which will include a public consultation period. The project will be submitted to the B.C. Environmental Assessment Office by the end of this year. Pending a final investment decision at the end of 2020, construction at the site is to begin in spring 2021. Once operating, about $50聽million per year would be spent on maintaining the facility.
A recovery plant will take ethane, propane, butane and natural-gas condensate from the natural gas retrieved from the pipeline. In turn, an ethylene plant would produce one million tonnes per year of polymer-grade ethylene and a polyethylene plant would, in turn, covert most of that ethylene into raw plastic that would be shipped to Asia where it would be used to make finished products.
The distance to Asia from Prince Rupert is about half that from the U.S. Gulf Coast, James noted. Another competitive advantage, said James, is a supply of cheap 91原创 natural gas, its price driven down by the shale-gas revolution in the U.S.
He said a plant in Prince George will have a $250-per-tonne advantage over product produced in the U.S. Gulf Coast and $50 to $75 per tonne on product produced in Alberta. James predicted as many as five more petrochemical plants will be built in B.C. over the next 20 to 30 years and added there is room for three plants in total at West Coast Olefins鈥� property at BCR.
鈥淭his will totally change the economy here,鈥� he said.
In a scrum with reporters, James said he is 鈥渙ver 50-per-cent confident鈥� that the project will go ahead. That may seem pessimistic, he said, but noted that only one of the several liquefied natural-gas plants that have been proposed for B.C. is progressing.
鈥淪o I鈥檓 very confident,鈥� James said. He alluded to a statement he made during his presentation that the level of co-operation he has had from all levels of government rivals what he has seen in Alberta.
James, who sported a Lheidli T鈥檈nneh First Nation pin on his lapel, said he is also working to get the band鈥檚 support. In a statement from West Coast Olefins, Lheidli T鈥檈nneh Chief Clay Poutney said the band 鈥渓ooks forward to potentially partnering with West Coast Olefins to ensure that if the project is approved [it] will provide significant economic benefits to Lheidli T鈥檈nneh and our members, and is designed and built in a way that is aligned with our values.鈥�
Mayor Lyn Hall welcomed the news, calling it a 鈥済ame-changer鈥� that will be good for the region as well as the city.
West Coast Olefins was formed a year ago to pursue the project. James and chief operating officer Ron Just both have 30 years of experience in the industry and hold degrees in chemical engineering from the University of Waterloo in Ontario.
