New $4.3B Canadian project to include PE

A new Canadian company wants to build a massive C$5.6 billion (US$4.3 billion) petrochemicals site in western Canada that would include polyethylene resin.

West Coast Olefins Ltd. of Calgary has secured a 300-acre site in the BCR Industrial Area of Prince George, British Columbia, for the project. The firm is about to begin formal regulatory approval and is targeting a final investment decision by the end of 2020.

Company officials said in a news release that the site would include a world-scale ethylene plant and PE facility. Most of the PE resin made at the site would be shipped to Asia, they added.

Once fully operational, the facility will create up to 1,000 permanent high-skilled jobs, officials said. Several thousand workers will be required to support the construction effort over a three-year period.

Officials added that WCO, which was formed last year, "is aware of the local sensitivity to air shed concerns in the 'bowl area' of Prince George, especially particulate matter and odor issues."

The proposed plant would use a low-carbon, clean-burning mixture of methane and hydrogen as its main fuel source for fired equipment. Officials said that mixture has no soot or odor and minimizes greenhouse gas emissions.

"We believe that this makes a strong case for how this project fits with the provincial climate action plan," officials said in the release.

WCO representatives have been meeting with local contractors to ensure that the company uses local labor and associated construction and fabrication infrastructure. Officials have also had several meetings with First Nations, local leaders and construction companies over the past six months.

"The Prince George facilities, using the latest available technologies and leveraging feedstock and transport advantages available in the city, will be the most competitive in North America," CEO Ken James said in the release.

The overall project will include a natural gas liquids recovery plant to recover ethane, propane, butane and natural gas condensate from a nearby pipeline, an ethylene plant with more than two billion pounds of annual production capacity and a PE resin plant that would use most of the ethylene produced there.

Company officials added that a monoethylene glycol plant could be built at the site to use the balance of the ethylene produced.

"Council strongly encourages businesses to invest in our community," Prince George Mayor Lyn Hall said in the release. "We think this project has great potential and promises to have a major, positive economic impact for Prince George, the region, and the whole province."

The project will be constructed within the territory of the Lheidli T'enneh First Nation. West Coast Olefins will be working closely with Chief Clay Pountney and his council.

"Lheidli T'enneh Nation looks forward to potentially partnering with West Coast Olefins to ensure that if the project is approved will provide significant economic benefits to Lheidli T'enneh and our members, and is designed and built in a way that is aligned with our values," Pountney said in the release.