heat required for extraction and the CO2 made in the refining process. I don’t think that’s going to be really great for the future of Alberta unless we do things to mitigate CO2.” The answer was to come up with a process that would refine the oil, capture the CO2 for use in enhanced oil recovery and then leave any remaining CO2 underground, rendering it harmless. The solution wasn’t entirely new. Large oil producers in the U.S. were using a similar process of enhanced oil recovery based on naturally occurring CO2 but in Western Canada there wasn’t any of this type of naturally occurring CO2. That meant there wasn’t an enhanced oil recovery industry even though there were plenty of reservoirs. “We lacked the CO2 required to get the trapped oil out. That was the opportunity: capture the manmade CO2 from the refining process and use it for EOR,” MacGregor explained. “All the big guys were saying nobody but us can build refineries,” he said. “I love it, ever since I was a little kid, when somebody tells you can’t do something, that’s what I want to do.” More than a decade later, the final result is within reaching distance. Much of the credit goes to Canadian Natural who MacGregor describes as “the best partner you Ian MacGregor, President and Chairman of North West Refining Inc. 4 business elite canada H FEBRUARY 2017
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTE4MTQ=