Parkland nixes Burnaby renewable diesel project in British Columbia

Parkland Corp. announced March 2 in its quarterly and year-end financials report that the company has decided not to proceed with its plans to build a standalone renewable diesel complex at its Burnaby Refinery in British Columbia, Canada.

“After careful consideration, and consistent with Parkland’s commitment to capital discipline, the company will not proceed with its plans…” Parkland stated.

The company cited several reasons for its decision.

“Several factors have impacted the competitiveness of the renewable diesel complex, including rising project costs, a lack of market certainty around emerging renewable fuels, and the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, which advantages U.S. producers.”

In May, before IRA legislation was passed by the U.S. Congress and signed into law by President Joe Biden, and before the U.S. EPA issued its highly criticized proposed volumes under the Renewable Fuel Standard set process, Parkland had announced its plans to expand existing coprocessing volumes to approximately 231,000 gallons per day (gpd) and building a standalone renewable diesel complex within the Burnaby Refinery, which would be capable of producing approximately 273,000 gpd.

Parkland estimated back in May that these projects would require an investment of approximately CAD$600 million, with the majority of capital investment expected to be deployed in 2024 and 2025.

The company said that while it no longer plans to proceed with its standalone renewable diesel complex, it will “continue to extend its low-carbon fuel innovation and leadership by expanding coprocessing at the Burnaby Refinery” to the levels previously suggested—231,000 gpd.

“Coprocessing forms part of Parkland’s commercial decarbonization strategy to provide its customers with a portfolio of low-carbon products and services to help them meet their low-carbon goals,” the company stated.

Bob Espey, president and CEO, added, “While we are not proceeding with the planned renewable diesel complex at our Burnaby Refinery, we will continue to expand our coprocessing volumes. We are grateful for the support our renewable diesel project has had from all levels of government, particularly the province of British Columbia.”

Parkland said it coprocessed more than 29 million gallons of biobased feedstocks at the Burnaby Refinery last year.