Multi-Billion Dollar Refinery Proposed for Chetwynd

Credit: CJDC – Peace Country’s Country

Big news is developing along a coast close to home: According to President of Aeolis Wind Power Corp. and CEO of Blue Fuel Energy Juergen Puetter, Chetwynd could be the selected spot for a two-phase, multi-billion dollar gasoline refinery and methanol plant.

“We have gotten ourselves some land next to the pulp mill in Chetwynd, just about 20 kms east of Chetwynd,” Puetter said. “We expect to be utilizing natural gas and a facility that can convert the natural gas into gasoline and then electrolyze water into hydrogen to make a low carbon gasoline that can be used to comply with the low carbon fuels standard that B.C. and California currently have.”

In addition to an environmentally friendly product, Puetter adds the process in which to make the product would have environmental benefits too.

“Typically you would build a plant on the ocean, but as you know, pipelines are a big issue in B.C.,” Puetter said. “By making a product in Chetwynd area, you are able to make [a product] that you can transport by rail and thereby not being contingent on having a gas line on the coast.”

The first phase of the project is estimated to cost under $2.5 billion and is expected to create at least 150 jobs.

“This is a value added commodity, so it’s a long term project,” Puetter explained. “We expect to have perhaps around 150 permanent jobs and a significantly larger number during its construction.”

Economic boom associated with the plans is why Chetwynd’s Mayor is even giving the project a thumbs up.

“I believe it will create steady employment, a steady source of income, for quite a number of workers,” Mayor Merlin Nichols said. “It’s going to be good for the whole area.”

To learn more about this proposition, a public meeting regarding the Clean Fuels Plant will be held on Thursday, February 19 at 5 p.m. in Chetwynd’s Recreation Arena.

Sources say that if all goes as planned, construction could start as early as 2016.