West Coast Olefins secures site for multi-billion dollar petrochemical facility

West Coast Olefins of Calgary has secured a 300-acre site in the BCR Industrial Area within the City of Prince George in preparation for the construction of a CAN$5.6 billion petrochemical project at the site. The project would include a world-scale ethylene plant and polyethylene facility and the majority of the polyethylene product would be shipped to growing Asian markets. Once fully operational, the facility will create up to 1000 permanent highly skilled jobs, while several thousand workers will be required to support the construction effort over a three-year period. Tens of millions of dollars in sustaining capital investment will be required each year to support the facility, which would provide on-going economic benefits for the community. In response to local environmental concerns, especially about particulate matter and odour, the plant will use a low-carbon, clean-burning mixture of methane and hydrogen as its main fuel source for fired equipment that has no soot or odour and minimises GHG emissions.