BC Premier David Eby is arguing Canada should spend “tens of billions of dollars” on refinery capacity instead of new export pipelines, positioning domestic processing as the hedge against US refinery dependence and new Venezuelan supply risk.
That pitch landed amid heightened oilsands market anxiety after the US capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and Washington’s stated intent to take control of Venezuela’s oil resources, developments Eby condemned as “deeply unsettling” even as he called Maduro a “tyrannical dictator.”
Eby framed the downside as a refinery competition problem, not a pipe-to-tidewater problem: if Venezuelan heavy crude ramps, it could displace Canadian heavy oil at US refineries.
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More than 90% of Canada’s oilsands exports are shipped to the US for refining, according to Canada Energy Regulator data cited in the reporting, leaving Canada vulnerable to shifts in US refinery slates and import preferences.
On infrastructure, Eby reiterated opposition to a new oil pipeline through northern BC and argued the existing Trans Mountain system to Burnaby is not at full capacity, saying it could be expanded further within its existing right of way and that he sees no case for a new taxpayer-funded pipeline.
He also pointed to what he described as an absence of private-sector interest, saying there is no current private offer to build a pipeline, a key constraint if the policy environment demands privately owned projects.
Irony
Eby’s refinery pivot is colliding with a long paper trail of stalled or opposed refinery efforts tied to the same northwest BC geography now back in the conversation. In 2014, the Kitimat refinery concept being floated in BC was already attracting criticism from the NDP side of provincial politics, even as proponents sold it as “value-added” processing rather than another raw-export play.
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The irony is sharper in the project record: two major Kitimat-area refinery proposals that promised domestic upgrading capacity are now marked “terminated.” The federal registry shows the Kitimat Clean Refinery Project was pitched at ~400,000 barrels per day over 50 years, with the federal assessment process terminated on August 19, 2024 at the proponent’s request.
The Pacific Future Energy Refinery Project was pitched at 200,000 barrels per day over 60 years, with the federal assessment process terminated on February 11, 2025 at the proponent’s request.
Separately, BC’s EAO project page notes the provincial environmental assessment for Pacific Future Energy has been paused since 2018 after the office received no further correspondence from the proponent.
Critics countered that private capital previously did surface. They cite Enbridge’s Northern Gateway proposal from roughly a decade ago and say it was canceled in 2016 after Enbridge spent about $1.0 billion on consultations and environmental assessments, despite claims of First Nations consent and “billions” in equity participation.
They also point to a private, multi-billion refinery proposal in Kitimat from the same period, arguing the regulatory and cost uncertainty in BC made the project non-viable, and that Eby’s current openness amounts to backtracking after opportunity costs piled up.
A separate line of criticism challenges the economics of a BC-located refinery, arguing refineries tend to be built near end users of gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel and that shipping refined products separately weakens the case.
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