Eaglesledge Energy (“ELE” or “the Company”) today provided an
update on the development of its Saskatchewan-based Belle Plaine
Clean-Tech Energy Refinery & Solar Facility (“the Project”).
The Company’s campaign to propel the Project
more swiftly through the Saskatchewan Environment Ministry’s
permitting-and-approval channels gained momentum earlier this month
when its leaders hosted their first open house in the Rural
Municipality (RM) of Pense No. 160.
Members of the community, First Nations business
representatives, and local and provincial government stakeholders
attended the open house at the Pense Town Hall to learn more about
the boutique-style clean-fuels refinery (CFR).
The government presence at the open house lent a spirit of
support and sensibility to the Project and its goal to create a new
blueprint for green-energy leadership in Canada.
“The Project will revolutionize the energy
landscape and redefine what it means to be a responsible energy
provider in the 21st century,” said Eaglesledge Energy CEO and
Chairman Boris Weiss.
Mr. Weiss noted that achieving the provincial government’s
support of his CFR and solar aspirations would bring the Company a
step closer to breaking Phase 1 of Project ground while meeting
Canada’s climate goals.
The Project site is located 4 km northwest of
Pense, Saskatchewan, in the Village of Belle Plaine, and runs
parallel to the supply-chain route of the Trans-Canada Highway,
locally known as the ‘Regina-Moose Jaw Industrial Corridor’ which
comprises several industrial sites including agricultural plant
Yarra Canada and potash mining company Mosaic. The CFR is slated to
process 30,000 barrels per stream day (bpsd) of low-sulphur light
crude oil, as well as to feature a 125-megawatt solar facility and
railyard.
Mr. Weiss said the Company will provide product
distribution within local and provincial communities via the
Canadian Pacific Kansas City Limited (CPKC) Rail line and the
Trans-Canada Highway connectors.
“Shipping by rail is extremely costly. The
proximity to the Bakken Formation reduces transportation
costs—large savings in transporting crude direct to site—which, in
turn, enables the reduction of harmful emissions during the
long-haul of crude deliverables,” Mr. Weiss said.
Public engagement 101
Robert Woods attended the Open House as a proxy representative
for Okimaw Chief Shelly Bear of the Ochapowace First Nation,
the rights holder to the Treaty 4 territory where ELE’s project
site is situated and whose economic arm, the Atoskewin Business
Development Corporation, late last year signed a Memorandum of
Understanding (MOU) for a limited partnership with ELE.
“I understand the importance of these community engagement
meetings in working through the additions to reserve process and
creating Treaty lands,” said Mr. Woods who is based in Saskatoon
and hails from the Muskoday First Nation.
“Our neighbours in rural Saskatchewan, through RMs like
yourself, have a vested interest in seeing projects develop within
your regions—and I think this one is important.”
ELE’s town hall fell on the heels of the Saskatchewan
Environment Ministry’s Environmental Impact Assessment Notice to
the public on Saturday, July 29, in the form of local ads placed in
the Regina Leader Post, the Saskatoon Star Phoenix, and the Moose
Jaw Express newspapers, as well as on social media, indicating the
Project is subject to an environmental assessment under The
Environmental Assessment Act.
Further government support came from Deputy Minister Jodi Banks
of Saskatchewan’s Ministry of Trade and Export Development in a
letter to Mr. Weiss thanking him for considering Belle Plaine,
Saskatchewan, as a location for Eaglesledge Energy’s clean fuels
refinery.
“The Government of Saskatchewan looks forward to a
first-of-a-kind refinery operation with the integration of
renewable electricity supply and intentions of implementing carbon
capture technology,” Ms. Banks wrote.
A new kind of footprint and job creation
The Project’s multitude of green benefits include the refinery’s
carbon capture, utility, and storage (CCUS) components as well as
the integrated solar solution.
“Our plant will be processing brand new forms of energy, whole
new sets of clean footprints that originated from carbon, which
will place Saskatchewan front-and-centre, nationally and globally,
as leaders of green energy,” said Mr. Weiss, pointing out that at
present “there are only 23 facilities globally” like his company’s,
while emphasizing the “astronomical cost of energy required to
support this kind of endeavour.”
The Project will also position and propel energy production
locally through well-paying jobs for many in the community,
positively stimulating Saskatchewan’s economy and establishing the
province as a fiscal power player in Canada.
“Our strategy is to help advance Saskatchewan’s oil-and-gas
sector by presenting a whole new vision for the energy industry,”
Mr. Weiss explained.
ELE’s Chief Operating Officer Dr. R. Gerald Bailey, a chemical
engineer, energy consultant, and former president of Exxon’s
Arabian Gulf division, said he’s steadfastly passionate about his
trade and staying apace of evolving trends. He’s a proponent of
“the more progressive energy ideologies” shared among his younger
family members, so long as they are purported without any “smoke
and mirrors.”
“I’ve got kids and I’ve got grandkids and they’ve grown up
knowing how petroleum fits into their lives. I do a lot of speaking
at schools to tell the young people how just about everything in
this room, if it’s not made of wood, it came from petroleum in some
stage,” said Dr. Bailey, who also has experience in all aspects of
the petroleum industry, both upstream and downstream, including in
a 400,000-bpsd refinery for Exxon.
Opportunity knocks: Tapping Canada's renewable resources
potential
Dr. Bailey believes ELE’s project is economically viable and has
the potential for rich renewable-backed rewards. “Canada is sitting
on a lot of natural resources and a lot of hydrocarbons and yet
most of the material is being shipped south [of the border],” he
said.
“Canada is one of the largest countries supplying crude oil to
the ‘Lower 48.’ An opportunity like this will keep more of that
here and utilize the savings—the transport and production costs,
and the costs of other technological developments we are
introducing.”
Dr. Bailey forecasts “upside” for everyone in the RM community
if the plant takes off and suggests that even “billion-dollar
projects” like this one typically start with a kernel of a vision
with the common denominator being two simple words: “Why
Not?”
“I think you could be the anchor place for a world-class
opportunity with big benefits,” he told the audience, adding, “If
you’re going to get into a business, you want to be in a business
where everybody needs it, they don’t always understand it, but they
can’t do without it, and most people waste it."
“There’s profit to be made if you do it right. You’re in a good
location right off the Canadian Pacific [Railway]—great logistics
to be able to make products, move products, have your own things in
your backyard, in a safe and environmentally friendly,
good-neighbour spot.”
An infographic accompanying this announcement is available at
https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/01b18ee9-3548-486e-bfa9-ca45f85b0a57
For more information on the Belle Plaine Clean-Tech Energy
Refinery & Solar Facility, visit: www.eaglesledgeenergy.com
Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking
Statements: Some of the statements in this press release
may be forward-looking statements or statements of future
expectations based on currently available information. Such
statements are naturally subject to risks and uncertainties.
Factors such as the development of general economic conditions,
future market conditions, unusual catastrophic loss events, changes
in the capital markets, and other circumstances, may cause the
actual events or results to be materially different from those
anticipated by such statements. Eaglesledge Energy Ltd. does not
make any representation or warranty—express or implied—as to the
accuracy, completeness, or updated status of such statements.
Therefore, in no case whatsoever, will Eaglesledge Energy Ltd. or
its affiliated companies be liable to anyone for any decision made,
or action taken, in conjunction with the information and/or
statements in this press release or for any related damages.
SOURCE Eaglesledge Energy Ltd.
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other inquiries phone: 639.800.5334; or email:
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