Prince George Refinery
General Overlook
Prince George is the largest city in northern British Columbia. This city is well known owing to the Prince George Refinery (known as “PGR”). It is a light oil refinery that is owned by Tidewater Midstream & Infrastructure Ltd. Previously it was owned by Husky Energy company. In 2019 the refinery was sold to the Tidewater Midstream & Infrastructure Ltd. This oil refinery processes approximately 12.0 Mbbl/d of light oil and mostly produces low sulfur diesel and gasoline. These products are added to other ones that supply the greater Prince George region.
Prince George Refinery has great storage with its capacity of more than 1.0 MMbbl. It also provides flexible logistics, with the pipeline, rail, and truck connectivity in place. The Prince George region suffers from a lack of refined products. The PGR’s location within this region makes it a critical piece of infrastructure with a significant logistical advantage to address the demand for these products.
The refinery is fed from the Pembina Pipeline that runs from Taylor, British Columbia through Prince George ending in Kamloops.
Gasoline and other petroleum products are vital energy sources for transportation and industry. They are part of a broad range of products that come from fossil and include plastics, petroleum and natural gas. Prince George Refinery offers us an insight into the petroleum industry and the many products it produces.
What products does the Prince George Refinery produce and work with?
The Prince George Refinery produces gasoline for all the gas retailers in the Prince George area, as well as gas retailers throughout much of northern British Columbia. The refinery also produces gas, diesel and heating oil. The refinery uses crude petroleum that is pumped from deep in the earth in northeastern British Columbia and adjacent Alberta. The crude oil is carried by pipeline to Prince George. The refined gasoline is shipped by tanker truck and rail car to the gas station. Nearby pulp mills use heavy fuel oils produced at the refinery. A tank farm behind the refinery can store over a million gallons of crude and refined products.
In spite of the tremendous benefits and convenience of fossil fuels, a consensus in the scientific community that the greenhouse gases produced from the use of oil and natural gas are dramatically changing the composition of the atmosphere and creating very worrying global climate change.
Northern British Columbia has warned significantly in the last 100 years, and direct evidence of this is seen in the widespread and rapid retreat of glaciers in the Rocky and Cariboo mountains near Prince George.
Prince George plays an essential role as a supply and service hub for local and regional mines. Approximately 20% of northern BC’s employment in the mining sector is located in Prince George. 20% of businesses are focused primarily on mining or support activities for mining operations.