Province announces next step in long-term oil plan

Notley has already come out with a short term plan, which involves cutting oil production by 8.7 per cent.

She is also looking at buying more rail cars for the province, to help get more oil to market as a medium term solution.

Now Notley is thinking bigger and she’s looking at a long term plan that will create thousands of jobs.

The government is looking for expressions of interest to build an oil refinery.

The idea came from the energy diversification advisory committee and is something Notley said companies are interested in.

“The reality is, the more that we can upgrade the product that we own, the more we can return to Albertan’s through, not only economic development but through our own fiscal health,” she said.

Jobs will be a key component of any interest brought forward.

In the press conference, Notley said thousands could be put to work during construction and hundreds of opportunities will be available once the facility is built.

She said she’s interested in hearing all sorts of ideas, from new investments to expansions at existing facilities.

The deadline for requests is February 8th, but there isn’t a timeline beyond that.

“We would like to be able to analyze the kinds of expressions of interest that come forward, relatively quickly, and then move forward with requests in respect to RFP’s but I think that we can’t really talk about the good, sound construction of RFP’s until we have a full sense of the expressions of interest that come back,” she added.

It’s not yet clear where the facility would be built.

Notley added that this is only one part of her long-term plan. She said she’ll continue to fight to make sure her message is heard.

by Ashley Wiebe

Province announces next step in long-term oil plan

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