Husky Energy hopes to resume full production at its Prince George oil refinery on Tuesday now that Pembina has restarted its pipeline in British Columbia.
Pembina Pipelines shut down the pipeline as a precautionary measure following flooding in the Peace Region more than two weeks ago, but announced today it had restarted the line.
Husky's small Prince George oil refinery had reduced it throughput to 6,900 barrels of oil per day - used largely to produce gasoline and diesel for the north-central B.C. region - from its normal level of 12,000 barrels.
"Hopefully [we'll be back up to full production] tomorrow," Husky Energy spokesperson Graham White said today.
Because of the pipeline shut down, Husky had been trucking oil to its Prince George refinery from its Rainbow Lake operations in northwest Alberta.
The production reduction at Prince George had not impacted the workforce of 85 people.
The major floods that caused washouts in the Peace region two weeks ago were considered a one in 40-year event.
Portions of the Pembina pipeline in northeastern B.C. were exposed due to erosion and washout conditions on the weekend of June 25.
The company restated today it did not have a break on the pipeline, but it had shut down the pipeline to minimize the potential risk of an incident.
The pipeline runs from Taylor in northeastern B.C. to Prince George, and then on to Kamloops.
"We take the safety of our people and the communities along our pipeline rights-of-way very seriously," said Pembina president and CEO Bob Michaleski.
"We are committed to being a responsible operator and implemented these pre-emptive measures to reduce the potential impact of the erosion along our pipeline right-of-way," he said.
