REGINA – A $2.7 billion investment into the Federated Co-Ops refinery complex in Regina should help boost how much oil the facility produces each day by about a third.
Federated Co-Ops Ltd., which owns and operates the refinery, celebrated the official opening of the massive expansion project on Thursday.
The expansion was built to process sweet synthetic crude, which is already partially upgraded in Alberta.
Technically, section five at the facility started production last October, but the final upgrades to the surrounding facility were just completed this summer.
CEO Scott Banda said they were at 100,000 barrels a day of processing, and that’s going up to 130,000 barrels.
He added that the new capacity boosts total output from the site up to seven billion litres of gas and diesel fuel annually, shipping to Co-Op retailers across Saskatchewan and western Canada.
The refinery now runs a total of 33 processing units. Banda said it is one of the most flexible oil refineries in the country because it can handle different types of crude oil.
“If there’s a hiccup in some part of the oil industry we can switch crudes,” he said.
Banda explained that the project was entirely financed by the Co-Op retailing system, noting that the expansion should allow the company room to grow more in the future with smaller investments.