An alternative to the Enbridge pipeline is in the works.
President of Eagle Spirit Energy, Calvin Helin says the company, First Nations and the Aquilini Group have come up with a pipeline that would use an alternate route, a safer terminal port and would transport a different form of oil.
“The first thing that we wouldn’t do is ship bitumen through the sensitive waterways and ecosystems of B.C. Instead what we would do is build an upgrader which is a kind of refinery that refines bitumen from a heavy, heavy tar to one of the lightest forms of crude oil which is called synthetic crude oil.”
He says the company proposes to build an upgrader refinery to transform heavy bitumen into much lighter synthetic crude oil to be piped to the coast.
He says for over a year the company has been meeting with communities and First Nations to gather their input and have been developing a world class environmental model that meets the five conditions of the province and is still economically beneficial.
“What we are doing is we are going to continue ongoing meetings with First Nations in British Columbia and we are starting now to reach out to the First Nations in Alberta. Our position is that if First Nations aren’t on side we just won’t do this.”
Recently he says the Nee Tahi Buhn band withdrew their support of the Enbridge pipeline in favour of this new proposal.