Utah company in Canada refinery mix
Gary Park For Petroleum News
A Utah-based resource conglomerate has emerged as yet another candidate to establish Atlantic Canada as a new North American refining center.
Headwaters has confirmed it is in preliminary discussions with the Nova Scotia government to build a refinery in the Strait of Canso at the same time it is developing a technology to improve the upgrading of heavy oil to lighter transportation fuels.
Although the company has no refining experience and is reluctant to inflate hopes, it is being touted as a serious player by government and industry leaders in Nova Scotia.
Premier Rodney MacDonald told reporters that talks are under way with a U.S. company he declined to identify to build a refinery in the Strait of Canso, a deepwater, ice-free waterway.
He said the area has ample vacant industrial land, including a site near Anadarko’s stalled liquefied natural gas project at Bear Head.
The discussions represent a quick turnaround from October, when Nova Scotia’s search for companies interested in building a refinery was derailed when Irving Oil started exploring the feasibility of doubling the size of its Saint John, New Brunswick, refinery complex to 600,000 barrels per day.
That dashed the hopes of the Nova Scotia government and Nova Scotia Business, a private development agency, who had held discussions with companies in Canada and the United States.
Headwaters reports successful commercial run Headwaters, which posted revenues of about $1 billion in 2006, has a stable of companies working on products, technologies and services to the energy, construction and home improvement industries.
In a separate announcement Jan. 5, Headwaters reported a third successful commercial run of its HCAT technology which is targeting a breakthrough in the refining of heavy petroleum feedstocks.
The latest two runs took place at a commercial heavy oil hydrocracking unit located at a “major” unidentified North American refinery.
Craig Hickman, president of Headwaters Heavy Oil, said in a statement that the HCAT catalyst performed consistently with Headwaters’ expectations.
The company did not disclose its next moves or whether the technology might have a role in any Nova Scotia refinery.
In addition to the Irving refinery expansion, Newfoundland has two projects on the table — a 300,000 bpd plant by Newfoundland and Labrador Refining and a possible C$700 million expansion of the Come By Chance refinery, now owned by Harvest Energy Trust, to produce the RBOB blendstock which is in high demand since the U.S. banned the use of MTBE as a gasoline additive.
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