As a new protest against the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion goes up in Burnaby, a local refinery is pulling back operations due to problems with the old pipeline.
More tree-sitters have stationed themselves in a forest near Stoney Creek and Gaglardi Way – directly in the path of the pipeline expansion.
Meanwhile, Parkland Corp. is moving to pause its refinery processing operations in Burnaby due to a lack of crude oil supply from the Trans Mountain pipeline, which has been shut down as a precaution due to the flooding in B.C.
The company says it plans to maintain the refinery, which is a key source of gasoline for the Vancouver area, on standby mode so that it can resume processing quickly.
“We are maintaining the refinery in ready-mode...which positions us to recommence processing once sufficient crude oil feedstocks become available”, Ryan Krogmeier, Parkland's senior vice-president of refining, said in a statement.
During the shutdown, people in North #Burnaby will notice the flare is much larger (and noisier) than normal.
— Michael “oplopanax” Coyle (@lithohedron) November 23, 2021
When this has happened in the past, people have called 911 as the light reflects off low clouds and can be alarming.
The refinery can process about 55,000 barrels a day of crude and synthetic oil into gasoline, diesel, jet fuels, asphalts, heating fuels, heavy fuel oils, butanes, and propane.
Trans Mountain Corp. has 350 people working around the clock to restart the pipeline, which has been shut down since Nov. 14.
This all comes as the provincial government has set a limit of 30 litres of gas per person in B.C.
- With additional reporting by the Canadian Press
