Ian MacGregor at the Sturgeon Refinery Construction Site.
NEW REFINERY SHOULD MAKE US PROUD
Mike Priaro, P.Eng.
First uploaded April 8, 2017
Published in the Calgary Herald on Apr. 8, 2017: http://calgaryherald.com/opinion/letters/your-letters-for-saturday-april-8 )
“Every Albertan owes a debt of gratitude to the visionary and tenacious Ian MacGregor, the driving force behind North West Refining’s Sturgeon Refinery nearing completion northeast of Edmonton.
A report commissioned by the company from the Conference Board of Canada in late 2016 concluded that the project’s economics are sound and that the refinery will be able to recover its investment as well as add value and return a profit to both its shareholders and raw bitumen suppliers, which includes Albertans’ bitumen-royalty-in-kind volumes as well as volumes from Canadian Natural Resources Ltd.
The first greenfield refinery in Canada since 1984, it is also the world’s first refinery designed to capture CO2 process emissions right from the start.
That means 1.2 million tonnes per year of CO2 will be safely injected underground instead of released into the atmosphere.
This should be a source of great pride for all Albertans and all Canadians.
Mike Priaro, Calgary”
After Phases 2 and 3 of the refinery are complete, there will be up to 240,000 bbl/d of ultra-low sulphur diesel, plus volumes of other refined products, looking for transportation to market.
I am trying to arrange a meeting with Ian MacGregor and company to discuss batching such products down an Eagle Spirit energy corridor to Prince Rupert – exactly as has been done for many years down the existing Trans Mountain pipeline to the B.C. Lower Mainland.
Mike Priaro, P.Eng.
Calgary
403-281-2156
Author Bio
Mike Priaro, B.Eng.Sc. (Chem. Eng.), U.W.O. '76, P.Eng., Lifetime Member Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of Alberta (APEGA), worked in facilities, production, operations and reservoir engineering, as engineering consultant, area superintendent, and engineering management in Alberta's oil patch for 25 years for companies such as Amoco and PetroCanada.
He increased oil production from the historic Turner Valley oilfield and brought in under-balanced drilling and completion technology to drill out, complete, and test several of the highest producing gas wells ever on mainland Canada at Ladyfern. He co-authored ‘Advanced Fracturing Fluids Improve Well Economics’ in Schlumberger's Oilfield Review and developed the course material for the ‘Advanced Production Engineering’ course at Southern Alberta Institute of Technology.
Mike has presented his work to Canada’s House Committee on Natural Resources in Ottawa and to the Senate Committee on Transportation and Communications in Calgary. He has had work published in: JNW Energy, Feb. 27, 2017; Alberta Oil magazine, Oct. 20, 2016; World Pipelines magazine, Sept. 2016; the Macdonald-Laurier Institute in the Mar. and Apr., 2014 and Feb., 2015 editions of Inside Policy magazine; U.S. energy industry websites such as RBN Energy; Oil and Gas Journal, Jul. 17, 2014; Petroleum Technology Quarterly, Q3 2014; and in columns in the Calgary Herald, Edmonton Journal, Montreal Gazette, Halifax Chronicle Herald, and others.
Mike has no formal connection to any oil company, environmental organization, think tank, labour organization, lobbying or special interest group, academia, or to provincial or federal politics.
In 2015 Mike provided "A Preliminary Engineering, Economic, and Environmental Evaluation of ASRL's Partial Upgrading Process" to Alberta Sulphur Research Limited and presented it to 80 representatives of ASRL's member companies. ASRL partial upgrading subsequently obtained Alberta government funding and industry support. On Jan. 29, 2016, the Alberta Government made partial upgrading a priority based on its Royalty Review Panel’s recommendations. As of Nov. 2016, the ASRL partial upgrading flow test pilot was running at CANMET/NRCan’s research facility in Devon, AB.
In 2016 Mike was invited to be a Bowman Centre Volunteer Associate at the not-for-profit Bowman Centre for Sustainable Energy. Its mission is 'to catalyze big energy projects which drive Canada’s energy strategy and generate sustainable wealth and jobs'.
Mike’s work can be found on his LinkedIn pages:https://www.linkedin.com/in/mike-priaro or Behance website:https://www.behance.net/Mike_Priaro
