In 2014, Pacific Future Energy's proposed refinery project enlisted support from Stockwell Day, a former federal Conservative cabinet minister, and two high-profile Indigenous leaders: Shawn Atleo and Ovide Mercredi.Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press
A B.C.-based company has cancelled its proposal to build a West Coast refinery designed for exporting finished petroleum products to Asia.
Pacific Future Energy sought to transport bitumen from Alberta’s oil sands to northwestern British Columbia for refining. The idea was to load refined petroleum products such as diesel, gasoline and jet fuel onto Asia-bound tankers.
Samer Salameh, Pacific Future Energy’s chief executive officer, e-mailed the Impact Assessment Agency of Canada in December to announce the company’s decision to scrap the refinery project, according to newly released documents.
“We hereby terminate our application,” he told the federal environmental agency on Dec. 3.
Mr. Salameh’s comment was in response to three separate requests from the agency – in September, October and November – to clarify an e-mail that he sent in August, in which he wrote: “This project has been suspended for now.”
The agency, which had been reviewing the company’s application, publicly released the documents this week.
“This letter provides you with notification that I have terminated the environmental assessment for the project,” federal Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault wrote to Mr. Salameh recently.
Mr. Guilbeault said he halted the environmental review after the CEO confirmed the company’s decision to cancel the refinery project that would have been located near Kitimat.
Mr. Salameh did not respond to a request for comment on Wednesday.
In 2014, the refinery project enlisted support from Stockwell Day, a former federal Conservative cabinet minister, and two high-profile Indigenous leaders: Shawn Atleo and Ovide Mercredi.
Serving as a special adviser to Pacific Future Energy in 2015, Mr. Day joined the company’s trade mission to Asia.
In 2019, the Impact Assessment Act (IAA) replaced the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act with the revised regulatory process designed to pay greater scrutiny to the climate consequences of industrial proposals.
Pacific Future Energy submitted its project description in 2016, under the former act.
“The application should be terminated rather than transitioned to an impact assessment by review panel under the IAA,” Mr. Guilbeault said.
He said that if Pacific Future Energy were to revive its plans, the company would need to submit an initial project description to the federal agency in accordance with the 2019 act.
More than a decade ago, there was vehement opposition in B.C. to the now-defunct Northern Gateway pipeline, which would have transported diluted bitumen from Alberta to a planned terminal for export to Asian refineries.
Pacific Future Energy’s supporters had high hopes for finding an innovative way to move oil out of landlocked Alberta to a West Coast plant, which in turn would produce 200,000 barrels a day of refined products.
The concept would have involved transporting Alberta bitumen by rail to the Dubose Flats industrial site, located more than 30 kilometres north of Kitimat, in the form of near-solid “neatbit.” Pacific Future Energy officials said the substance would have a form similar to cold peanut butter so it would be less prone to spill in case of a derailment.
While climate activists and environmentalists worried about oil spills, proponents of the refinery believed that this new approach would significantly reduce the harm if tankers leaked refined petroleum products into the ocean.
But a wide range of groups expressed major concerns about the project, including SkeenaWild Conservation Trust, and First Nations such as the Kitselas, Metlakatla, Gitga’at and Haida.
After promoting the early planning stages, Pacific Future Energy later withdrew from publicly providing updates.
“The environmental assessment of the project has not progressed,” Mr. Guilbeault said, adding that the Impact Assessment Agency of Canada will “notify the British Columbia Environmental Assessment Office, federal authorities and relevant Indigenous groups of the termination.”