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Pending a final investment decision at the end of 2020, construction at the site is to begin in spring 2021. And once operating, about $50 million per year would be spent on maintaining the facility.

A recovery plant will take ethane, propane, butane and natural-gas condensate from the natural gas retrieved from the pipeline. In turn, an ethylene plant would produce one million tonnes per year of polymer-grade ethylene and a polyethylene plant would, in turn, covert most of that ethylene into raw plastic that would be shipped to Asia where it would be used to make finished products.

The distance to Asia from Prince Rupert is about half that from the U.S. Gulf Coast, James noted. Another competitive advantage, said James, is a supply of cheap Canadian natural gas, its price driven down by the shale-gas revolution in the U.S.

He said a plant in Prince George will have a $250-per-tonne advantage over product produced in the U.S. Gulf Coast and $50-$75 per tonne on product produced in Alberta. James said as many as five more petrochemical plants will be built in B.C. over the next 20 to 30 years and added there is room for three plants in total at West Coast Olefins property at BCR.

“This will totally change the economy here,” he said.

In a scrum with local media, James said he is “over 50-per-cent confident” that the project will go ahead. That may seem pessimistic, he added, but noted that only one of the several liquefied natural-gas plants that have been proposed for B.C. is progressing.