David Black Plans Refinery for Northern Gateway

Kitimat refinery | BCBusiness
David Black, owner of Black Press Group, has proposed to build a refinery in Kitimat that would assist in getting crude from the oilsands easily exported to Asian markets.

The prominent B.C. newspaperman has proposed a $13-billion refinery near Kitimat to prepare crude from the oilsands for export to Asia and abroad.

So, why would a local media mogul with no background in oil want to wade thigh-high into the rising tide of the Northern Gateway controversy?
 
Obviously he sees an opportunity. And he seems to see the fierce fight around the pipeline as a glass-half-full situation.
 
Newspaper tycoon David Black, owner of Black Press Group Ltd., has put his own offer on the table to help make the Northern Gateway pipeline a reality: a refinery especially constructed to filter diluted bitumen from the oilsands (up to 550,000 barrels a day, according to Black’s plan).

He says Enbridge, the brainchild of Northern Gateway, is forfeiting $15 billion a year in revenues because landlocked oilsands companies are forced to sell their crude to North American buyers. Black obviously wants a piece of that $15-billion pie and hopes to get it in the refining portion of the crude production process.
 
The aim of the Northern Gateway pipeline, which will stretch across Alberta and B.C. to the port in Kitimat, is to export crude extracted from the oilsands around Fort McMurray, Alta., to our biggest new market in Asia.
 
While his proposal is potentially feasible, he would need strong backers to even get the project off the ground. Black has no experience in oil, and the North American refinery market is a competitive one. Not to mention he’d have to slog through all the regulatory processes just for the government’s greenlight.
 
Suffice is to say, this project will require a heavy dose of patience and deep pockets before it will come to fruition.