May 3, 1997
OILSANDS PLANT A GO
TEN REMAIN AFTER SOLV-EX LAYS OFF STAFF
By JERRY WARD
Staff Writer
Plans for a $600-million US experimental oilsands extraction plant in northern Alberta are to be unveiled next week, claims Solv-Ex Corp. of New Mexico.
The expansion proposal comes on the heels of the company dramatically chopping the number of unionized tradesmen from about 70 down to 10 yesterday at its
$80-million extraction pilot plant near Fort McMurray.
Chairman John Rendall said the company is scaling down for a month as it reconfigures a water system at the facility, as well as completing other work needed
before upgrading.
The company has cut its construction workforce continuously from a peak of 500 earlier this year to the present level.
"They're going to cease construction for a one-month period," said John Heard, business agent for the International Brotherhood of Boilermakers Union, Local
148.
He said the down time could be seen as a positive as the company is going to complete engineering, order parts and draw blueprints.
"This goes back to when we were getting blueprints on the back of cigarette packages, so finally they're listening," he said. "We're happy they're doing this."
Rendall said the company will file disclosure statements, detailing construction and operation, with the Alberta Energy and Utilities Board Monday.
The proposal will outline plans to build an operation that can produce 80,000 barrels per day of crude oil from the company's two oilsands leases.
A formal application for regulatory approval, which will include an environmental impact assessment, is to be made in October, Rendall said.
Solv-Ex said it'll prepare a detailed feasibility study for the larger plant based on test results from the existing plant, expected to be released in the next couple of
weeks.
"These operating results will play a key role in being able to obtain financing for the expansion," Rendall said.
Rendall also said the company will look for additional partners in the expanded plant, "primarily because of its size and preliminary estimates of capital costs, as
well as the desire to proceed on an accelerated schedule."
Solv-Ex describes its technique as more efficient and less polluting than conventional production, with the bonus of extracting minerals from oilsands mining
byproducts.
The Alberta government has sunk $3.6 million into helping develop the patented technology. |
