Panel suggests partial bitumen upgrading in Alberta

摘要

Alberta's oil sands producers would be better off by partially upgrading in the province-rather than shipping the diluted bitumen through pipelines to US refineries- with the hope of fetching a higher premium for its products, the chairman of the province's royalty review panel, Dave Mowat, said last week. "Partial upgrading would mean turning raw bitumen into lighter products that would better fit a range of refineries," he told reporters in Calgary. "The new product range would also reduce the need to use diluents for transportation and increase pipeline capacity by about 30%."