The spokesperson for Burnaby's Chevron refinery is taking issue with recent statements from the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers' Union of Canada regarding speculation that the refinery could be in peril from rising Asian demand for oil.
The CEP union, which represents refinery workers across Canada, outlined its concerns in a statement sent to the NOW.
"It's our understanding that as of March 1, the Chevron refinery in Burnaby will lose access to 20,000 barrels per day of bitumen resulting in production curtailments due to Kinder Morgan's sale of bitumen to China. CEP is very concerned about the potential loss of good-paying family-supporting jobs in the community. There are about 400 jobs locally in Chevron's operations that depend on this refinery."
However, Chevron spokesperson Ray Lord pointed out that the refinery uses conventional, sweet and synthetic crude - not bitumen.
"Bitumen is not what we use here at the Burnaby refinery. Bitumen is a material produced during an early stage of the refining process," he said. "Bitumen is a precursor to finished, refined petroleum products like gasoline, diesel and jet fuel. Following its initial excavation from oil sands deposits, it has the consistency of thick molasses. It can then be further refined into synthetic crude oil in an upgrader facility prior to final processing in a finished products refinery."
Lord said the union's 20,000 barrels and 400 jobs figures were also incorrect.
"Our plans for refinery crude supply in March have not yet been finalized as the degree of apportionment has not yet been determined by the pipeline operator," Lord said.
According to Lord, there are about 250 Chevron employees at the refinery, and 147 of those are represented by CEP.
"The number jobs that support the refinery beyond the gate would be far greater than 400, although I don't have precise data at my fingertips," Lord said.
CEP union spokesperson Karen Cooling conceded the bitumen part was incorrect, but she referred the NOW to their source Russ Day, a Chevron refinery worker and union representative. Day said the number of employees he had was wrong, but he's sticking to 20,000 barrels of day figure.
"The managers said we are going to be curtailed a portion in March, and the figure then was 20,000 barrels," Day said. "They were telling us that back in December."
Lord has said the refinery is not planning to lay off people, but he could not comment on whether operations would be scaled back because it's commercially sensitive information.
"They are telling their workers one thing and then publicly not saying much," Day said. "We're being told we are being cut back and affected."
Burnaby's Chevron refinery gets oil from Kinder Morgan's Trans Mountain pipeline, which ships petroleum products from Alberta to Burnaby. Kinder Morgan also runs the Westridge Marine Terminal, where tankers fill up with oil for overseas markets. Kinder Morgan doesn't actually own the oil products, they just operate the pipeline and charge fees for transporting it.
"The crude oil our refinery needs is extracted or processed by producers in Alberta," Lord said. "It is then purchased through Chevron's crude supply offices in Calgary. They work with brokers and traders who deal in crude as a commodity on the open market. Our crude supply team in Calgary works very closely with our local supply group based here at (the) refinery."
Chevron supplies approximately 25 to 30 per of the gas and diesel used in B.C., most of which is used in the Lower Mainland, and roughly 40 per cent of the jet fuel used at the Vancouver International Airport.
