Delays add to oil price discount woes

CALGARY — A new refinery touted as part of the solution to Alberta’s oversupply of heavy oil likely won’t begin processing oil sands bitumen until year-end, several months later than expected. That means 80,000 barrels per day of diluted bitumen that would have been delivered to the $9.7-billion Sturgeon Refinery near Edmonton is instead joining the queue to be placed on overcrowded pipelines leaving the province. Ian MacGregor, CEO of co-owner North West Refining, Inc., says multiple equipment failures have prevented the startup of the part of the refinery designed to break down heavy, sticky bitumen into an upgraded oil that can then be converted into consumer products.