The Bowman Centre says a new $10-billion oil refinery developed in Sarnia-Lambton's Chemical Valley would have major advantages for the Ontario economy.
At a Rotary Club presentation on Monday, Associate Don Wood presented a business case for the Sarnia-Lambton Advanced Bitumen Energy Refinery, also known as the SABER project.
Wood says the refinery would see 100,000 barrels of bitumen processed each day from Western Canada and would be cost competitive worldwide.
"We would have the same ability that the U.S. Gulf Coast refineries have to export into the Atlantic basin or other areas and displace less efficient refining capacity where their raw material costs are higher."
Wood says seven values are true to see a viable SABER refinery based in the area. This includes value added for all Canadians, deliverable bitumen, advantages for all stakeholders, available markets, obtainable approval to build, financeable, and attractive return.
The project has existing pipelines in place but would need construction of a new refinery building. 5,000 construction jobs and 500 maintenance jobs would be created in the process.
Approvals and construction would take about 5-6 years. The property maintained would be economically viable for at least 25 years, or up to 75 as long as the market is there.
Besides the creation of jobs, Wood says processing bitumen locally would have major advantages for the Ontario economy though lowered gasoline prices.
"I did the calculation based on 2013 gasoline sales in Ontario. If the Ontario price dropped by 24 cents a litre, thats over $4-billion of money that would stay in the pockets of consumers."
Moving forward, the SABER project is looking for a global company to be a major refiner project proponent and are looking to gain support from the Ontario government.
Wood says its a $62-billion opportunity that should be pursued for Canada.
