Parkland plans renewable diesel complex at Burnaby

Parkland Fuel plans to increase renewable fuel production by more than 6,500 b/d at its refinery in Burnaby, British Columbia, to offer more low carbon products.

Roughly C$600mn ($460mn) will be needed to expand existing facilities and build a stand-along renewable diesel complex on the site of its 55,000 b/d refinery, located in greater Vancouver on the Pacific coast of Canada. The refinery co-processed about 1,500 b/d of renewable fuels across 2021.

The Calgary-based company expects a final investment decision in the second half 2023 with most spending to occur in 2024 and 2025. Over 40pc of the project costs would be covered by the British Columbia government through the province's Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) compliance credits.

Parkland estimates that production would begin in 2026 with the resulting product having one eighth the carbon intensity of conventional fuels, ultimately reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 2mn metric tonnes/year.

The province, whose LCFS requires fuel suppliers to progressively decrease carbon intensity, also announced legislation this week that would expand the program to include other fuels devoted to aviation and marine.

Parkland is also investigating the feasibility of producing Sustainable Aviation Fuel as part of these renewable fuel plans at its Burnaby refinery, which already serves the Vancouver International Airport.

The refinery is connected to oil-rich Alberta via the 300,000 b/d Trans Mountain pipeline that originates in Edmonton.

By Brett Holmes