Chinese sign MOU for Kitimat financing.
financialpost:
CALGARY • British Columbia newspaper publisher David Black said China’s largest bank has agreed to provide financial backing for his proposed Kitimat-based heavy oil refinery.
The refinery would cost $25-billion to build and all its output would be sold to Asian markets, Mr. Black said in a statement Thursday.
Mr. Black’s company, Kitimat Clean Ltd., and the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) signed a memorandum of understanding in which ICBC agreed to be the refinery’s Chinese financial advisor and cooperate in financing it and associated pipelines.
Chinese companies will be involved in the engineering and construction of the refinery, but ownership will remain in Canadian hands, Mr. Black said in the statement.
China’s financial backing removes the main hurdle to the project, which has been downplayed by the Canadian oil community.
“We are very pleased to be working toward a comprehensive agreement to finance a refinery in Canada which is planning to export refined fuels to China and other Asian countries in the future,” LIU Yanping, Deputy Head of Corporate Banking Department, and HUANG Jifa, Deputy Head of Investment Banking Department, said on behalf of ICBC.
David Black, owner of Kitimat Clean, said the refinery will prevent the shipment of bitumen in tankers off B.C.’s coast and reduce global greenhouse gas emissions by replacing other refineries with less stringent environmental standards.