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Hello everyone.
Thank you all for joining us.
And thank you to Dr. Columba Yeung, Founder, Chairman, and CEO of Value Creation, for being here.
Before I begin, I’d like to acknowledge we’re gathered on the traditional territory of the signatories of Treaty 7.
I’d also like to acknowledge the Métis people of Alberta, who share a deep connection with this land.
You’ve heard a lot about our Made-in-Alberta plan to create jobs and add value to our resources.
You’ve heard a lot because it means a lot…
To the people it puts to work…
To the companies it helps to grow...
And to us all, as our economy continues to diversify.
With today’s announcement, more jobs are going to be created...
Adding value to our resources…
Selling it for higher prices…
Taking carbon out of the barrel and expanding pipeline capacity.
Sounds pretty good, doesn’t it?
Because it is.
It’s the kind of technology that’s only Made-in-Alberta.
And which our government is proud to support.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again.
The future is coming and it’s Made-in-Alberta.
Making the kind of energy the world will want more of.
That’s what the folks at Value Creation Incorporated are going to do.
We are here to announce that this Calgary-based company is on track to invest $2 billion in a new upgrading facility in the Industrial Heartland outside Edmonton.
If a final investment decision is reached, it’s going to create over 2,000 construction jobs.
We are doing this through a letter of intent that I am announcing today, with a $440-million loan guarantee, as part of our $3-billion Made-in-Alberta plan to add more value to our resources.
How will this project do that?
Let me tell you.
There’s a promising set of technologies aimed at creating new upgraded bitumen products.
Here’s why partial upgrading is so promising.
First, it adds value to our resources by creating new products that can be used at more refineries world-wide.
Some refineries make gasoline.
Others make jet fuel.
On it goes.
If Alberta can make bitumen flexible enough to be used by more places, we’ll get higher prices for it.
That’s what partial upgrading does.
But there’s more.
It also removes the need to add diluent to the bitumen before it’s shipped.
The new upgrading facility will use 77,500 barrels per day of diluted bitumen to produce medium synthetic crude and ultra-low sulfur diesel.
This is expected to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 16 percent compared to current processes to extract bitumen.
This also saves companies money.
And putting less diluent in the pipe lets us put more bitumen in it.
Which expands pipeline capacity, which I don’t have to tell you is just what Alberta needs.
It takes carbon out of the barrel, too.
That’s right.
By scraping the highest carbon bits away, it lowers how much carbon is in the barrel.
We’ve said all along that technology will help us make energy that’s better for the climate.
And climate leaders do more than talk.
We make.
We make energy that’s better for the climate.
We make energy that’s better for our economy.
And we make energy using the best people on earth to make it: Albertans.
In the days and weeks ahead, you will hear more about our made-in-Alberta plan.
We’re working with several companies toward agreements that could lead to about $20 billion in new capital investments.
Those projects will also be at the cutting edge of energy technology.
They will do what Alberta has always done.
They will use our brain power to create what nobody else has thought of.
They will use our people power to make that technology real.
And while all this is going on, we will keep fighting to build new pipelines, to open up new markets.
And we’ll keep fighting to get the world’s best energy to world markets that need it.
I’m proud to partner with Made-in-Alberta companies like Value Creation.
Congratulations to Dr. Columba Yeung and your colleagues for bringing your Heartland Complex project one very important step closer to the finish line with this agreement.
Thank you again for being here today.
Now let’s get to work making it in Alberta.