A rendering of the proposed methanol plant (Photo: Alberta Infrastructure / Major Projects)

By Curtis Galbraith

Business

No new plans yet for Nauticol site after cancellation of blue methanol plant proposal

Feb 10, 2023 | 6:00 AM

The reeve of the County of Grande Prairie says the county is not taking any action right away in light of the announcement by Nauticol that it is cancelling plans to build a blue methanol plant south of Grande Prairie.

The project had an estimated value of $4 billion.

Bob Marshall says Nauticol has first right on refusal on the land along Resources Road close to the Weyerhaeuser and International Paper mils through 2024.

“After 2024, the land does revert back to us. That first right of refusal falls off and then we can do with it as we please. We can pursue any other organization.”

“Nauticol, I believe at this point in time, said they are still potentially looking at a smaller scale, so we haven’t heard any more about that.”

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Marshall says some work on Resources Road near the planned site will go ahead.

“The last drawings I saw, there are passing lanes going up the hill. There (have) been (land) slides on that hill, significant movement, so there has got to be significant work to stabilize that hill going down to Weyerhaeuser and International Paper.”

Marshall says planned improvements to the intersection at the Nauticol site will not go ahead.

He adds there are other possibilities for development on that land. Those would include a pellet plant of co-gen. facility.

There is a study being done on biomass in the region and what industry could potentially use it.

“Currently, if you look at, and this is far-reaching its the county, its (the) MD of Greenview and even up into the Saddle Hills, the amount of biomass available, there is only about 50 per cent of it that is actually being used at this point with Weyerhaeuser, International Paper and Canfor in the city (and) what they’re using for allocations.”

Marshall says is unfortunate that the project was cancelled as many people were looking forward to it and that the impact on jobs and growth would have been huge in this area.

He says there were plans to have fertilizer production there as well, something that would have benefitted agriculture in this area.