B.C. premier comes close to endorsing $25 billion oil refinery plan

VICTORIA – Premier Christy Clark has come close to offering her government’s endorsement of a proposed $25-billion oil refinery development at Kitimat in northwest British Columbia.

Clark told the B.C. legislature the oil refinery proposal being put together by media mogul David Black nearly meets the province’s five conditions for allowing heavy oil initiatives in the province.

Black says he’s on the verge of signing a memorandum of understanding with a consortium of investors put together by Richard Cooke, the senior managing director of Switzerland-based Oppenheimer Investments Group.

Clark says Black’s plan calls for reduced greenhouse gas emissions and less environmental risk from oil tanker shipping accidents due to the use of smaller vessels.

Clark did not mention the Enbridge (TSX:ENB) plan to build a pipeline from Alberta to northwest B.C. where oil product will be loaded onto supertankers and shipped to Asia.

Clark says her government has been working with Black on his proposal.