And since that time, the Kitimat Clean project has held the attention of the Northwest for the last twelve months. With some suggesting it will never happen, while others are hopeful that his vision will translate into a major investment in the region.
There hasn't been much heard about the refinery proposal since the recent provincial election, where the prospect of major investment proved to be a major theme of the campaign.
While keeping a lower profile of late, Industrialist David Black it seems is still pursuing the prospect of developing his industrial site half way between Terrace and Kitimat.
An Alberta based oil industry publication, Alberta Oil, featured the project earlier this month with this article and this morning, Mr. Black appeared on the CBC's Early Edition program.
He provided a thumbnail review of recent events for the CBC's Catherine Gretzinger, providing an update of some notes of interest regarding his project.
Among his key points from the interview, Kitimat Clean has had some two months of discussions over the last two months with provincial, federal and First Nations officials regarding the project.
The company has also conducted further examination of the Fischer Tropsch process to provide for cleaner refinery emissions, which he says will provide for a fifty percent reduction in CO2 emissions for the Kitimat refinery site.
That process however, will increase the capital cost of the development by some 3 billion dollars, bringing the total investment into the project to near 25 Billion dollars.
On the theme of money, he also revealed that his Chinese banking sources have scaled back their commitment and exposure to the project to 75 percent.
Leaving it up to Kitimat Clean to provide for the final 25 percent of the required investment, a financing task that he believes he has now secured, but wasn't quite ready to reveal from where that investment may come from.
The untested nature of that Fischer Tropsch process was part of the interview and Black admitted that while it was a concern, he still has the belief that it would work when implemented in the Kitimat operation.
On concerns over the movement of bitumen to Kitimat, he stressed that his project was looking to reduce the risk of bitumen shipments, removing the need to ship raw bitumen through the North Coast and instead shipping refined oil to world destinations.
He also outlined his belief that modern pipeline technology reduces the risk of shipment from the Alberta oil fields to his proposed refienery and terminal in Kitimat.
The issue of relationships with First Nations was also discussed, with Mr. Black suggesting that he believes the coastal First Nations were receptive to his proposal and that is helping in his process of gaining acceptance for it further inland.
You can listen to the full interview with the CBC Radio One program from this podcast, the Kitimat Clean project is the first item up for review from 1 minute to 11 minutes.
The CBC also posted this article to its website on Monday afternoon.
Terrace Standard-- Oil refinery plan needs Canadian lenders
Some of our past items of review on the Kitimat Clean proposal can be found from our archive page.
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